Moments
by Sea Queen - JoKessho
Summary: A collection of one-shots I've written in response to prompts on Tumblr. Various pairings and characters (most are Taiyama). I think there will be about 20 chapters in total. (marked as complete as all chapters are stand-alones)
1. On hitting hard

**Requester:** Cyclone5000

 **Prompt:** "On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard do you want me to hit you?"

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard to you want me to hit you?"

"Hmmm." Taichi pretended to think really hard about the question, index finger and thumb on his chin and all. "How about you don't hit me at all?"

Yamato gave him an incredulous look. "After you left me alone wi—"

"Unless," Taichi interrupted. "You meant 'hit on,' in which case 10. Or 11. Or higher. How high did the scale go again?"

This stumped Yamato and his hands, which had been balled into fists at his sides, relaxed.

Taichi blinked at him expectantly.

"Wha…?"

"You're not doing a very good job of hitting on me, you know."

"W-why would I be hitting on you? Why would I want to hit on you?"

"You're the one that asked the question in the first place."

"No I didn't! I asked how hard you wanted to be punched. And if you don't answer, then I'll just decide by myself."

"You asked about hitting."

"Same thing as punching."

"Now you're just playing hard to get, and leaving me to do all the hard work of hitting on you."

Yamato looked incredulous. "Why would you be hitting on me? We don't like each other like that." Though, even to Yamato's own ears, he sounded uncertain with that last bit.

Taichi shook his head in a pretend-disappointed manner. "Now you're just lying to yourself. And to me. Besides, that's not even the point. The point is that you don't actually want to punch me."

"Taichi."

"Yes?"

"You left me alone with Jun."

"Yes."

"Jun Motomiya."

"Yes."

"That means you deserve a punch in the face."

"No."

"Taichi."

"Yamato, listen. Leaving you alone with Jun was me being a good wingman."

Yamato dropped his face into his palm, shaking his head. "Taichi, if I didn't like her two years ago, what makes you think I would like her now?"

"People change?"

Yamato lifted his head, quirking an eyebrow at Taichi. "You know I'm gay."

"Even so, you've never shown any interest in other men. Not even that one hot guy that keeps hitting on you after all of your gigs."

"He's not my type."

"None of them are."

"Someone will be."

"Face it; I'm the only one who's your type."

The two contemplated each other in silence for a minute. Taichi could see the gears turning; see the hesitation, the hope, the fear. He decided to push a bit more:

"You do realise that if we start dating, then Jun will leave you alone for good, right?"

Jun. The letch. After two years of peace, the older woman was back to bothering Yamato, begging him for a date, or even just attention. She had come running after the two in the park, screaming Yamato's name. And Taichi had left Yamato alone with her, bolting when she approached.

Though, Yamato thought, what Taichi was now saying was true. If he started dating Taichi, then Jun might realise that he would never be interested in women—least of all her—and leave him alone. Maybe. Hopefully. It was worth a shot.

Yamato smiled at Taichi, silently accepting this new stage in their relationship.

Taichi grinned widely in response to the positive answer.

"Kiss to seal the deal?" Taichi asked.

"Sure." Yamato said with a shrug, moving closer to Taichi. "But first." And he proceeded to slam a fist into the brunet's cheek.

Taichi stumbled, but didn't go down. He did, however, bring a hand up to rub at his now-sore cheek.

"I take it that was something like a 4? Or a 5, tops?"

Yamato shrugged, smiling broadly. "Something like that." He moved closer to Taichi again. "Shall I kiss it better?"

Taichi chuckled, moving his hand from his cheek to the back of Yamato's head, pulling him close.

"You absolute bastard." Taichi commented, before bringing Yamato in for a long-awaited kiss.


	2. Chance encounters

**Requester:** Anon

 **Prompt:** "We have to stop running into each other like this." – Taichi and Yamato

Taichi, 24-year-old office worker, nodded his thanks to the barista as he received his coffee. He turned, making his way to the automatic doors of the coffee shop—only to almost run into a blond entering said coffee shop.

"Sorry!" The blond said, hands wrapped around the coffee in Taichi's hands. "You didn't get any on your suit, did you? Shall I buy you another one?"

Taichi blinked rapidly in succession. "Uh…"

Blue eyes widened at Taichi's silence. "Did you burn yourself?"

"Ah, no, I didn't." Taichi hastily answered, bewildered by the other man. "It's totally fine, it didn't spill at all."

The blond seemed to fall back into a more relaxed pose. "Oh. That's good. Sorry about that anyway."

"Nah," Taichi waved the apology off. "I'm sorry, too." He glanced at the clock on the wall. "Ah, I need to get to work. Have a good day!"

The blond moved to the side, allowing Taichi to rush past. "Thanks, you too."

With a wave, the brunet was gone.

-o-o-o-

Yamato sighed as he finished his shift in the kitchen, walking into the changing rooms at the very back of the restaurant. Thoughts of a quick, at-work shower flashed through his mind, but he was in the mood of a longer one. He would just have a long, relaxing bath when he got home. With these thoughts, he quickly exchanged his chef uniform for his casual clothes.

The restaurant he worked at was jammed between a post office and small sporting goods store. The only exit was at the front of the building, where the customers also came in from.

Yamato left the changing rooms, making his way through the dining area. His eyes flitted from one face to another, gauging their opinions of the food. It was a habit he had developed during his three years of working there. He felt a smile tug at his lips as he saw the appreciation in the eyes of the customers. He took great pride in his cooking, both in professional and everyday life.

With a final nod to the host at the front, Yamato stepped out onto the busy street—only to have someone bump lightly into his shoulder.

"Oh, sorry!" The stranger said.

Yamato turned his head, looking at a semi-familiar brunet. He blinked in confusion for a while, brain working though all the brunets he knew, trying to place a name to this face.

The brunet gave a bark of laughter, clearly knowing Yamato. "Glad there's nothing to spill this time."

Then it clicked in Yamato's brain; this was the brunet he had almost run into a few days ago at the coffee shop.

Recognition lit the blue eyes and the brunet gave another laugh.

"At this rate, I'll probably see you again!"

With that, the brunet dashed into the sports store. Yamato stared blankly after the brunet for a few seconds before shrugging and heading for that bath he wanted.

-o-o-o-

Taichi let out a content sigh as he bounced a soccer ball around. It had been such a long time since he had last had a chance to relax in the company of his favourite sport.

He had just finished a game with a few of his old soccer friends and they were all ready to head home again.

"Bye, Taichi!"

Taichi looked up at the bronze-haired male who was waving enthusiastically.

"Bye, Daisuke! Till next time!"

Daisuke gave an eager thumbs-up and ran off.

Shaking his head, Taichi made his way to the shed-like building on the edge of the grass field. He had left all his stuff there for the duration of the game.

Taichi put the black-and-white ball into his new duffle bag, slinging it over a shoulder. He smiled at the bag, recalling the day he had bought it. It had been the second time he had run into that blond. He chuckled at the memory, turning the corner of the shed—only to slam into another body.

Both stumbled. Both grabbed onto each other's forearms for stability. Both apologised and looked up in synchrony. Both chuckled.

"How did I know?" Taichi asked, shaking his head in amusement.

"You must be psychic." The blond agreed. Then his face fell a bit. "But this time I need to dash off; I'm running late as it is, which is why I took this shortcut through the field. See you, maybe?" He looked a bit uncertain, but also quite hopeful.

Taichi grinned. "Yeah, see you."

-o-o-o-

It had been weeks. Three and a half weeks, to be exact, since Yamato had last seen the brunet.

Yamato sighed into his coffee-shop coffee. He had even started going to the coffee shop he'd met the brunet in the first time, but to no avail. Maybe he, too, had gone as a one-off thing.

Sighing again, Yamato left the coffee shop. He didn't run into anyone, nor did anyone run into him.

 _Damn._ He cursed himself. Why hadn't he even asked the brunet for his name? That would have at least given him something to look up in a phonebook. Or in something more up-to-date.

Yamato continued walking to his workplace, staring into his coffee. He hadn't even managed to drink half of it and he had already reached the post office.

A man across the street yelled out a 'hey,' which caused Yamato to look over—only to crash into someone in front of him. The force of the collision knocked him over backwards, coffee spilling all over his clothes.

"Ah, shit." He heard from above himself and looked up; into familiar brown eyes. Amusement and worry were warring within the brown depths.

"We have to stop running into each other like this."

Yamato grinned in response.

The brunet was still standing from the collision, offering a hand to Yamato.

Snapping out of his stunned state, Yamato took the offered hand gratefully. He was pulled up.

"Geez, I really managed to ruin your clothes, didn't I?"

"Ah," Yamato started, looking down at his now-dark grey shirt. "Don't worry about it. I'm heading to work, and I'll be in uniform, so it's fine."

A hint of sadness flashed across a tanned face. "Is that so? Well, at the very least, let me buy you a new coffee. Say tomorrow? You know, since you're obviously busy now."

Yamato swore his heart skipped a beat at that. Was the brunet actually asking him out? _If he is,_ Yamato thought, _don't be an idiot; give him an answer!_

"Uh, yeah, sure!" He said, sounding a bit _too_ enthusiastic to his own ears. He cringed, but the brunet only grinned. "I mean, I'm free tomorrow."

"Great! I'm Taichi, by the way. Taichi Yagami."

"Yamato Ishida."

"Yamato? That's a nice name."

"Thanks." Yamato blushed lightly, eyes flitting to the restaurant. "Listen, I'd love to chat a bit, but—"

"Right, right." Taichi cut him off. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a phone. "Can I just get your number?"

Yamato ratted off his number and Taichi left Yamato his number as a missed call.

"Great!" Taichi said. "So I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"It's a date." Yamato grinned.

Taichi's expression matched his, and he started to move off. "Have a good day at work!"

"Thanks, I'll see you tomorrow!"


	3. Laundry fight

**Requester:** Taiyamalover

 **Prompt:** "Fuck you." "Not with that attitude." – Taichi and Yamato

"Taichi! Stop leaving your clothes on the floor!"

Said brunet poked his head out of the bathroom he had just entered.

"They're dirty, so it doesn't matter." He pulled his head in, closing the door, fully intent on washing all the sweat and dirt off; he had been playing soccer in the park with some work colleagues, and the summer temperatures guaranteed a sheen of sweat, even without exercise.

Yamato, however, was not having it. He barged into the bathroom after Taichi, who yelped, then glared at his boyfriend and roommate.

"Do you mind?"

"Yes. Yes, I do mind. You can't go around making a mess, expecting me to clean up after you."

"But you do. Besides, I said that those clothes are dirty; it doesn't matter if they get dirtier from the floor."

Yamato gritted his teeth. "That's not the point!"

"Then what is?!" Taichi gripped the towel around his waist tighter, feeling his frustration increase in response to Yamato's. It also didn't help that his team had lost the play-match. Taichi didn't take well to losing at soccer.

"The point is that you're making a mess, and I'm left to clean it up."

"It's not like you'd let me do the laundry, anyway!"

"Not after the last catastrophe!"

"How was I supposed to know that the machine locks the door after it starts? I was trying to be nice and wash your clothes, too."

"But you forgot to put them all in at the same time."

"Well it only occurred to me _after_ I started the machine. I figured I could just shove them in quickly."

"I don't even want to know how you managed to wrench that door open. And that's not even the point!"

"You keep saying that!"

"And I told you what the point was!"

"The point is that I want to have a nice, peaceful shower. And that plan doesn't involve you bitching at me about a few stray clothes that you won't even let me wash."

"What the... How are you not getting this?!"

"Getting what?"

"You can't be a slob! You're always leaving your sweaty clothes on the floor, and I'm getting tired of it! I want to nip this bad habit in the bud!"

The two young men had moved in together three months ago, having dated since their senior year, some four years ago. Taichi was good with putting his clothes in the hamper most of the time, but when it came to post-soccer clothes, they somehow ended up on the floor.

"What is so hard about putting the clothes into the hamper with all the other dirty clothes?"

"I haven't done it after the first time, when you complained about my soccer stuff making all the other clothes smell!"

Yamato froze. "...when did I complain about that?"

Taichi crossed his arms over his chest, the towel staying in place, having been tucked in so tightly.

"It was in the first week we moved here; I came back from soccer, and threw my clothes in the hamper. The next day, you were doing laundry, and said that my clothes had made the whole hamper stink."

Now that he thought about it, Yamato could vaguely remember having said something like that. The whole hamper _had_ stunk...

"So," Taichi continued. "I haven't put them in there anymore."

Yamato blinked, thinking about the situation. "Ok, but that's still not a good enough reason to leave them on the floor."

"Then what am I supposed to do with them?"

"Hang them to dry, and _then_ put them in the hamper."

Taichi shrugged. "Isn't that too much effort? I mean, they'll dry on the floor, and then you can put them in the hamper."

Yamato arched an eyebrow. "Excuse me; ' _you'_ can put them in the hamper?"

Brown eyes widened, their owner realising his mistake. "That's not really what I meant—I meant that they can then be put in the hamper—you know: whoever gets there first...?"

Yamato threw his hands up in exasperation. "Gods! You know what? Fuck you!"

"Not with that attitude." Taichi mumbled. He turned and entered the shower.

"Fine! See if you're getting any for a month!" With that, Yamato stormed out of the bathroom, slamming the door after himself.

Taichi growled, turning on the shower. He waited for the water temperature to even out before stepping under the stream.

Yamato marched into the living room, grabbing his bass guitar form its stand. He sat on a stool he had placed near the window.

Half an hour later both men had calmed down considerably, but neither was ready to apologise just yet. Well, not until Taichi remembered Yamato's last comment.

"Yamato?" Taichi asked at the entrance of the living room.

"Hn."

"About the one month-thing…"

"I'm sticking to it."

Taichi, in a t-shirt and loose shorts, edged towards his boyfriend. "Reconsider?"

"No."

Taichi was standing three steps from the moody blond. Yamato had stopped fiddling with his bass a few minutes ago and was just staring out the window.

"You do realise that that means you won't be getting any for a month, right?"

"I don't care."

Gritting his teeth, Taichi tried again: "Isn't there anything I could do to make you reconsider?"

Blue eyes turned to regard the brunet. They narrowed.

"Stop treating me like your personal maid and I might shorten it to three weeks."

Taichi grimaced, but then his face softened and he kneeled next to the blond. "I'm sorry if you feel that way. That's honestly not how I want us to be. I'll hang my soccer stuff up myself and then put them in the hamper." He leaned forward, kissing Yamato's knee—the only place he could reach from his position. "And I'll also do any other chore you want me to."

With a sigh, Yamato bowed forward, resting his head on Taichi's. "It's not like I hate doing most of the chores. That's not what I mean. I'm really sure why I got so upset about it. Maybe it's just that you always expect me to be doing it all."

"I'm sorry. I'll help more in the future—without needing prompting."

Yamato lifted his head a fraction, allowing Taichi to do the same. They smiled at each other.

"Thanks."


	4. The marathon

**Requester:** Donottouchmeyoumuggle

 **Prompt:** "You've never seen _Harry Potter_?" – Taichi and Yamato

"You've never seen _Harry Potter_?" Taichi asked, staring incredulously at Yamato.

The two were sitting on Yamato's couch, chatting about which movies they should watch that night during their sleepover.

Yamato just shrugged. "I've read the books, so I know what happens. There's really no point in watching the movies."

Brown eyes were wide open. "But they're different to the books! You have to see them!" Taichi slammed a fist into his palm. "It's decided; we're having a _Harry Potter_ marathon tonight."

Yamato did not look amused. "Fine. But do know that I will spend the entirety of the movies complaining how they're different from the books."

Taichi shrugged. "I don't care, as long as you see them all." He stood. "I'll go pick them up; I have all the DVDs."

With a sigh, Yamato also stood, making his way to the kitchen. They needed food.

-o-

"Taichi…"

"Uh-huh?"

Yamato was sitting cross-legged on the floor behind Taichi, who was busy sticking the first DVD into the player.

"Just doing really fast math here, but—"

"No! No math. I know you, for some godforsaken reason, like it, but not now. It's a long weekend and we agreed not to let homework ruin it. Nor anything else, or anyone else; just the two of us."

Taichi turned around to a raised blond eyebrow.

"Are you done?"

A nod.

"Good. Now, as I was saying, it will take us about 20 hours to watch all these."

Taichi's eyes widened, moving to stare off to his left.

"Twenty?"

"Less, considering the end credits and my rounding." Yamato paused. "Though, we'll need to take breaks, so maybe 20 is quite accurate."

In wonder, Taichi's eyes moved to the pile of DVDs on the floor.

Yamato watched the brunet assimilate the information.

Then suspicious chocolate eyes lifted, staring into light blue. "Are you pulling my leg? 'Cause if this is just a ploy to avoid watching these movies…"

"No, I'm being serious. See," Yamato picked up the case for the first movie, turning the back towards Taichi. "This one's runtime—"

"Okay, I'll believe you!" Taichi said, pushing the case out of his face. He stared at the floor.

"How about we spread this out over the three days?"

"A three-day sleepover?"

"Yes."

The two young men stared at each other.

"Okay." Yamato finally agreed with a shrug. "It's not like my dad will be home for a few days, so you can stay and keep me entertained." Taichi stuck out his tongue at Yamato, who retaliated in kind. "But you need to ask your mother if it's okay."

Taichi grinned, displaying a row of straight, white teeth. "Mum will be happy to have me out of her hair for three days."

"Lucky her." Yamato replied flatly. He stood, moving back towards the kitchen. "Let's get started, then. I made some snacks."

Taichi pumped a fist into the air, silently cheering to himself.

Two movies—about five hours—later found both boys yawning widely.

"Sleep?" Yamato asked.

Taichi replied by yawning and turning off the TV. He stood from the couch and stretched his arms high above his head. He then turned back to a slouching Yamato and held out a hand to him.

Yamato looked up at Taichi, then at the tanned hand offered to him. Lazily, he slapped Taichi's hand with his own.

Taichi chuckled at the display.

"I'm too tired to move." Yamato whined.

"If you hadn't spent all your energy on commenting on the films, then you might have had the energy to walk to bed."

"But the movies got so much wrong. Not that I remember the books that well, but still."

Taichi shook his head fondly, holding out both hands. "Come on, lazy."

Yamato placed both hands on Taichi's. "Fine, pull me up."

With a grin, Taichi did as he was told. Only, he over-pulled, causing Yamato to crash into his body.

"Taichi!" The shock jolted Yamato back to full awareness.

Still grinning, Taichi bent his knees, gabbing Yamato behind his, and lifted the blond up.

"Taichi! Put me down! I'm awake now and can walk!"

"It's fine; I'll carry you."

Yamato pushed himself back using Taichi's shoulders as leverage and eyed the brunet suspiciously.

"Are you planning on dropping me?"

"No."

Yamato was still weary.

"Then what are you planning?"

Taichi shrugged, which jerked Yamato's shoulders up in response. "Nothing; I'm just carrying you to bed."

Laughing lightly, Yamato relaxed and let Taichi carry him across the living room and down the hall. Upon reaching Yamato's room, Taichi lowered him onto the bed, shaking his arms.

"That was a lot rougher than I was expecting." He rubbed at his arms, trying to get blood circulating through them again. "I thought I was going to break my promise and drop you."

Yamato chuckled from the bed. "You didn't have to carry me all the way over here; you could have just let me down in the hall. I can walk."

Taichi made a noncommittal noise and flopped onto the bed, next to the sitting blond. "But I promised."

"Not really, you didn't."

"I meant that more as a promise to myself."

"Oh."

The boys let a comfortable silence engulf the room. Yamato shifted to lie down on the side closer to the wall. Taichi settled on the other side. Both content to fall asleep like that. But:

"Who's going to turn off the lights?" Yamato asked.

"Shotgun not!"

"But you're closer."

"But I shotgun-notted it."

"But I'd have to climb over you."

"I could live with that."

"Last time you bitched about me being too heavy."

"Yamato. I just carried you here from the living room. You're not too heavy today."

"You just carried me here from the living room, then babied your arms for five minutes. I am as heavy today as I was last time."

"It wasn't five minutes."

"Close enough."

"And here I thought you were good at math."

"And I thought you would always jump at any chance to exercise."

"Not when I can sleep instead."

Heaving a huge sigh, that let Taichi know he wasn't happy about it, Yamato sat up.

"Fine, I'll go turn off the lights. But only because I want to sleep."

Taichi grinned, as Yamato started to clamber over him. The grin turned into a fake-pained expression.

"Ah, my stomach! Get off me, fatty!"

Yamato, on his feet now, turned around to give Taichi a light smack.

"Shut up."

The room was suddenly plunged into complete darkness. Yamato made his way easily back to the bed, making sure to jab Taichi in the stomach when he climbed back to his own side.

"Ugh!"

Taichi could hear the smile in Yamato's voice as the other said: "Good night."

"Night, Yama."


	5. The way you dress

**Requester:** Anon

 **Prompt:** "I'm sorry, but it's very hard to focus when you're dressed like that." – Taichi and Yamato

Taichi checked himself over in the mirror for one last time. Satisfied, he nodded. He looked perfect.

"Hikari! I'm going over to Yamato's now!"

"Okay!" Came an answering shout from behind a closed door. "Have fun and wish Yamato a merry Christmas from the rest of us!"

"Sure thing!"

Taichi grabbed a blue coat, then he was out, walking down Odaiba's streets. The weather was chilly, but not below freezing.

Humming to himself off-tune, Taichi dashed up the stairs to Yamato's floor. He knocked on the door of apartment 202, waiting for an answer.

The door opened and Taichi was greeted by bright blue eyes.

"Hey, Taichi and merry Christmas."

Yamato left the door open, turning around and making his way into the living room.

"Merry Christmas," Taichi grinned, moving into the apartment. "From everyone in my family."

"Thanks. I'll send some gingerbread cookies back with you tomorrow, as a proper 'thank you.'"

Taichi toed off his shoes and shrugged off his coat hastily. "There are cookies?" He asked, eyes wide and bright.

"There—" Yamato froze, staring at the brunet.

"I can't smell any…" Taichi turned towards the kitchen and sniffed at the air, ignorant of Yamato's astonishment. "Are there really cookies?" Narrowed chocolate eyes turned to the stupefied blond.

Blue eyes checked Taichi over slowly, from head to toe and back up.

"What?" Taichi asked, not understanding why Yamato had gone so quiet. Well, he _had_ been expecting a reaction, but not one like this. What had he been expecting? He wasn't sure, but _something_ rather than silence.

"Yamato?"

Shaking his head, the blond turned back to the living room. "I was just saying that there will be cookies. I haven't made them yet, thinking you might want to help."

Taichi nodded enthusiastically, following the blond to the living room.

"Can we start now?"

"In a bit." Yamato answered, grabbing a mop that was leaning against the far wall. "I'll just finish putting the cleaning things away, and then we can start."

Taichi nodded when Yamato stole a glance his way. Having been caught looking, the blond quickly turned away, busying himself with the cleaning supplies.

Grinning, Taichi grabbed his duffle bag and took it into Yamato's room. He'd be spending the night there, so he might as well take his things in. He also had a surprise hidden in the bag, which he didn't want Yamato to see just yet.

As Taichi left the bedroom, Yamato walked out of the bathroom, where he'd been emptying the bucket of dirty water.

"Ready to start?" Yamato asked, again trying to avoid staring at Taichi for too long.

"Yeah!" Taichi pumped a fist into the air, beating Yamato in an undeclared race to the kitchen. "Can I eat the batter?"

"You can eat the leftover scraps." Yamato turned and squared Taichi with a look. "No eating the dough before the first batch—at least—is in the oven."

"But, Yama," Taichi whined, watching Yamato don his dark blue apron. "I'm hungry!"

"You always are." Yamato mumbled, holding out a dark grey apron. "Can you please put this on?"

Taichi made a face. "I've never bothered with an apron before and you know it."

"I know, but can you this time?"

"No thanks."

"Please." Yamato said, barely able to contain his amusement. Taichi gave him a questioning look, which Yamato answered by bursting into laughter. "I'm sorry, but it's very hard to focus when you're dressed like that."

Taichi was stumped and looked down at himself. _He_ thought the Christmas sweater his mother had bought him was a blast!

It was mostly green, with a large cartoon drawing of a fireplace on the front. Miniature stockings were glued to the sweater, hanging from the drawn mantelpiece. Pictures of mistletoe were littered in a random pattern throughout the sweater. The highlight, however, were the small fairy-lights surrounding the fireplace on three sides.

"What's wrong with it?"

"What's not?" Yamato asked back between chuckles.

Taichi crossed his arms over his chest, before marching out of the kitchen.

With a sigh, Yamato followed.

"Taichi, I'm sorry!" He pleaded, almost at the door of his room. "Please don't be mad at m—" The sentence ended short as Taichi stepped out of the room, right into the blond.

"Here." Taichi shoved something soft into Yamato's hands. "It's a gift for you. I was going to wait until tomorrow to give it to you, but, since you insist."

Eyes widening in horror, Yamato glanced at the bundle in his arms.

"It's not wrapped, since you hate wrapping paper."

"Taichi." Yamato started, "Please tell me you didn't…"

The head of brown hair shook from side-to-side. "Nope. They're both from my mum. Apparently they're all the rage in America."

Yamato's eyes widened. Yuuko Yagami had horrible taste in food and gifts—he knew from experience. He at least hoped Yuuko had picked him one without the lights…

"Go on!" Taichi encouraged. "Put it on; then we'll match."

"Oh, God…" Yamato lamented, scared of taking a good look at the gift. He would feel horrible for never wearing it, but there was no way he could, if it was as horrible as Taichi's sweater.

Maybe he could burn it at the stake and blame its destruction on a cooking accident.

"Yamato? Hello? You in there?"

"Yeah..." With that defeated sigh, Yamato unravelled the bundle, taking a first look at his sweater.

It wasn't so bad.

It was navy with light blue snowflakes all over.

He looked up at Taichi—who had pulled off the atrocious sweater, revealing a navy sweater with red snowflakes.

"Dammit, Taichi!"

Yamato took his new sweater by the sleeves and proceeded to smack Taichi with it.

Laughing, Taichi ran around the apartment, Yamato on his heels.

"You stupid idiot! You scared me on purpose!"

Yuuko had honestly bought Yamato a red sweater with elves and lights. After seeing the two sweaters, Taichi had snuck the receipt from his mother and exchanged Yamato's for the snowflake one. He had bought himself a similar one, to match, keeping the horrible one for this prank.


	6. Night owl

**Requester:** 50cyg

 **Prompt:** "I'm so sorry to bother you this late but an owl got in my house and I have no idea how to get it out." – Taichi and Yamato

"Hello?"

"Yamato?" Asked the voice on the other end of the line. "I'm sorry to bother you this late, but an owl got into my house and I have no idea how to get it out."

Yamato stared at his living room's far wall.

"An owl?"

"Yes, an owl. Please come over right now. My parents and Hikari aren't home, and I have no idea what to do. Can you come over and help me now?"

"Um, okay."

"Great! Please hurry; it's making a mess!"

At the command, Yamato hung up, grabbed his keys, pulled his shoes on, and was out the door. He didn't care that he was still in his nightwear: a black t-shirt and grey flannel pants.

The owl had thrown him off completely. Did owls even live in a city like Odaiba? Well, apparently they did.

He arrived at Taichi's apartment complex in less than ten minutes and walked up the stairs. He was moving on autopilot, still thinking about the owl.

He rang the doorbell.

Within seconds, Taichi was opening the door, pulling Yamato inside by the wrist.

In its panic, the owl had managed to knock over a few framed family pictures, lamps, and a chair (or maybe that last one had been Taichi's doing).

"I have no idea how to get it out the balcony door!"

Yamato just stared at the fluttering mass of feathers.

The owl wasn't big; about the size of the kettle it was currently sitting on. How hygienic.

"Yamato!"

Blue eyes snapped to stare into brown.

"What?"

"How the hell do we get it out?" Taichi yelled, arms flailing above his head.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Yamato's voice rose in response to Taichi's.

"I thought you'd know!"

"Well I don't!"

"Why not?"

"Why would I know what to do with a fucking owl?"

"You know stuff!"

"I didn't even know owls lived in Odaiba!"

"But you know how to do all the cooking and cleaning and washing and stuff!"

This turn of conversation confused Yamato enough to stop yelling.

"That's household chores."

"Yes." Taichi's voice had lowered to match Yamato's. "Isn't getting pests out of an apartment part of household chores?"

"No."

The two stared at each other in silence. The owl, too, was quiet; still perched on top of the kettle. It was taking the chance to rest, now that it wasn't being chased by a crazy boy with a crow's nest on his head.

"Really?"

Yamato hesitated for a second. "Not that I know of; pests are usually taken care of by professionals. Aren't they?"

"I guess." Taichi shrugged. "But do owls really classify as pests?"

Blue eyes narrowed in accusation. "You're the one who called her that."

Taichi's eyes widened in surprise, before he burst out laughing. This, of course, surprised the owl so that it took flight again.

"Taichi!" Yamato took off after the bird, into the living room. "You idiot! You scared her!"

Taichi, running after Yamato and the owl, just continued to laugh.

"Stop laughing and help me shoo her towards the opening!"

"But," Taichi said between laughs. "How do you know it's female?"

Yamato stopped chasing the owl in favour of staring at Taichi.

"What are you talking about? Why do you need to know if it's male or female? It doesn't matter; what matters is that we get it out of the house before it wrecks anything else."

"You're the one that started calling it a 'her,' you know."

"That's what you're laughing at?"

Stealthily, the owl slipped out through the open balcony door.

"It's just so cute; you're one of those people that assign a gender to everything."

Yamato crossed his arms over his chest. "No I'm not."

"Yes you are; remember that time Takeru gave you that houseplant and you started calling it a 'him?'"

In a huff, Yamato looked away. "What does that matter? We need to get rid of that… owl…" Yamato's arms fell to his sides, as his eyes flittered around the living room. "Where did she go?"

Ignoring the pronoun, Taichi, too, started looking around. "Uh-oh."

The two looked at each other, eyes wide, before dashing around the apartment. Taichi looked under the living room furniture, whilst Yamato was searching the kitchen cabinets.

An hour later and the boys still hadn't found the owl.

"Shit." Taichi cursed, hand gripping his hair in the middle of the living room. "My mother will kill me."

Yamato was slumped on the sofa, arm over his eyes. It was late—or early, depending on how you viewed two thirty in the morning—and it had been a long night thus far.

Taichi ran both hands through his hair, before kicking at Yamato's foot. "Get up, we need to keep looking."

"I'm thinking." Yamato mumbled from under his arm.

Taichi cocked his head. "About?"

"Where I would go if I were the owl."

Yamato missed the flat look Taichi gave him. "You have got to be kidding me." He flopped onto the sofa next to the blond. "Yamato, this is a crisis." His words were slowing as his body registered the softness of the sofa.

"We can't just run around like headless chickens, looking for a missing owl." Yamato mumbled, head dropping to rest on Taichi's shoulder.

"Right; we should sit here for a while and come up with a game plan." Taichi shifted, slumping down further. He leaned back, head resting against the backrest.

In response to Taichi's shifting, Yamato snuggled further into the sofa. "So?"

"So what?" Came the sleepy response.

"Where would you go?" Yamato's voice was sluggish and deep.

"Go?"

"If you were an owl."

"Owl?"

"Trapped in your house."

"Here."

"Here?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't move."

"Okay."

After that, all that could be heard in the Yagami apartment was the gentle ruffling of the balcony's curtains in the night breeze.


	7. The unconventional response

**Requester:** Donottouchmeyoumuggle

 **Prompt:** "I'm not saying I'm gay, but I would be if they were asking." – Taichi and Yamato

Yamato was tired. The interview had lasted longer that it was supposed to. The fan meeting before that had been hell. He was tired. He wanted to go home.

"Unfortunately, this will be the last question, Yamato." The female interviewer's peppy-trying-to-sound-sad voice cut through the haze in Yamato's brain.

The blond musician straightened his posture and put on a killer smile. What was she talking about? Unfortunate? More like very fortunate, and about damn time.

"This question is about the female singing group, Lovely Lights. If they were to ask you out—separately, mind you; you're not allowed to be dating them all at the same time!" Yamato forced a laugh to accompany hers.

Gods he was tired of being so fake all day.

"Anyway, if they were to ask you out, would you agree?"

"I'm not saying I'm gay, but I would be if they were asking." Yamato mumbled, before his eyes widened. Had he said that out loud? On the radio? During a live streaming?

Well, shit.

Snapping out of her daze by the flashing on her screen, the interviewer forced a smile. "Unfortunately that's all the time we have for today." She fiddled with something on the desk, avoiding looking at Yamato. "Thank you so much, Yamato, for taking time out of your busy schedule to come in for an interview."

"Thank you." A red-faced Yamato replied, hoping his mike had broken for that last part.

-o-o-o-

"Stop laughing, Taichi!"

"Bu—" Taichi couldn't get any further due to his laughter.

Yamato covered his face with a hand.

The two were cutting through the park, as Taichi had gone to pick Yamato up from the radio station.

The brunet had listened to the interview on his smartphone on the way over. The initial plan had been to congratulate Yamato on his performance and talk about the details of the interview on the way home. That plan, however, had gone to hell at Yamato's last remark.

"Can you please stop laughing? I'm tired and I feel like a complete idiot and I just want to go home and take a shower and rest. And maybe throw myself out the window."

Yamato sounded so miserable that Taichi did stop laughing.

"Sorry." Taichi threw an arm over the other's shoulders, giving him a sideways-hug. "I'll stop laughing."

Taichi received a tired half-smile in reply.

"Although," Taichi started, dropping his arm but still remaining close. "Why did you say that you weren't saying you were gay? You are gay."

With a proper smile, Yamato bumped his shoulder into Taichi's. "Only for you."

Taichi smiled in response, grabbing Yamato's wrist. "Come on, let's get you home."

Even with the shortest possible route, it took the boys half an hour to get to the Ishida apartment.

"I wish my dad hadn't had to use the family car." Taichi lamented, as the pair toed off their shoes.

Yamato shrugged, "It's fine; I like walking with you."

"But you said you were tired."

"Only mentally." Yamato said, cringing at the memory of the interview.

Seeing the look, Taichi ushered his boyfriend towards the bathroom. "Go take that shower you were after."

Yamato pecked Taichi on the lips before moving into the bathroom, closing the door.

With a frown, Taichi settled onto the sofa and pulled out his phone. The response to that slip could not have been good…

Drying his hair with a towel, another wrapped around his waist, Yamato opened the bathroom door and made his way to his room. He pulled out clean clothes, fully intent on spending the rest of the day slumped on the sofa, watching crap on TV with Taichi.

"Yamato." Taichi barged into the room, phone in hand. "This is bad."

Blue eyes blinked at hard-set brown ones.

"What is?"

"This!" Taichi said, waving his phone around. "The response to you coming out."

Yamato groaned; he had wanted to forget the whole ordeal and had hoped that Taichi had had the sense to do so as well. Apparently not. "Can you at least wait until I'm fully dressed?"

Taichi nodded and sat on the bed, watching Yamato.

The intense stare was very unnerving, but Yamato tried his best to ignore it as he pulled on loose sweats and a large hoodie—his comfort clothes, which no one, save Taichi and his father, had ever seen.

"So?" Yamato asked, defeated, as he dropped himself onto the bed.

Taichi moved, so that his whole body was facing Yamato's. "So, every single guy in Japan wants to date you!"

"…What?"

"Every single guy in Japan wants to date you." Taichi repeated, waving his phone around again before he dropped in onto the bed.

Confused, Yamato asked Taichi to repeat himself again. So the brunet did. And again.

"Everyone?"

"Everyone!"

"It can't be every single guy in Japan…"

"Fine, just the gay and bi ones."

"But probably not all of them, either."

"Yes, all of them."

Yamato gave a snort of laughter. "Come on, not someone like Daisuke; I mean, he's a friend, so he wouldn't. Or Ken. Or anyone else that has a boyfriend already. Seriously, Taichi, not everyone."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Taichi turned, to rest his back against the wall. "I wouldn't put it past Daisuke. Or Ken, for that matter."

"They're our friends, Taichi. And they know about you and me."

"They might still try to steal you away."

Yamato chuckled and moved himself, so that this time he was the one fully facing the other. "Are you jealous?"

Taichi's eyes widened and his arms fell to his sides, fingers reaching for his dropped phone. "You should see the response…" He mumbled.

Laughing again, Yamato stretched to give Taichi something that resembled a hug. "Stop it; I love _you_ , and no one will be able to change that."

Taichi pushed himself off the wall and into his blond boyfriend, crushing him in a hug.

"I know, but those comments were just…"

Gently, Yamato pushed Taichi off him. Now they were lying on their backs, side-by-side. "I won't read them, you know."

"Even so…"

Yamato leaned over to give Taichi yet another peck, though on the cheek this time. He was feeling positively giddy.

"You're really cute when you're jealous."

Taichi stuck his tongue out at the blond.

"Seriously," Yamato said with a laugh. He turned onto his stomach, resting his forehead on Taichi's shoulder, hiding his small blush effectively. "It makes me feel really special."

Taichi reached over with his other hand, placing it over Yamato's slightly turned shoulder. "Well you are special. At least to me."

The boys stayed silent for a few minutes, letting their own thoughts float around.

"Just for the record," Yamato started, lifting his head to look at Taichi. "I would get jealous, too, if our roles were reversed."

Taichi smiled, moving his hand up to cup the back of Yamato's head. He pulled the blond downwards, foreheads meeting.

"Thanks, that makes me feel special."


	8. Can we fix it? Probably not

**Requester:** 50cyg

 **Prompt:** "I'm done! You can fix it!" – Taichi and Koushiro

"I'm done! You can fix it!"

"Taichi," Koushiro started, eyeing the pink cake in front of them on the countertop. "You do realise that I have no artistic skill whatsoever, right?"

Taichi crossed his arms over his chest, also eyeing the cake. He had bought an undecorated sponge cake at the store, after a few failed attempts at making one. Coating the cake in pink icing had been easy, but the designs he wanted on it hadn't turned out quite how he had imagined. Thus he had called on Koushiro for help.

"So you keep saying."

Koushiro poked the icing with a fork. "Why didn't you ask for Sora or Yamato? Or anyone that isn't me."

"I tried." Taichi said, uncrossing his arms and letting them drop to his sides in defeat. "But Sora's busy helping her mum today and Yamato's visiting his grandparents in that godforsaken technology-no-man's-land."

"Shimane?"

Taichi's pouty silence was all the answer he needed.

Sighing, Koushiro examined the cake. "What were you planning on doing?"

"Well," Taichi smiled at the opportunity to share his brilliant idea. "I wanted to have icing-pictures of Tailmon's evolutions around the sides and write 'Happy birthday Hikari' on top in fancy letters."

Koushiro's dark eyes widened. "Wait, those blobs are supposed to be Tailmon's evolutions?" He was pointing to one of the oddly shaped clumps of icing on the side of the cake.

Taichi frowned. "Just the colours and general shape. What, you can't tell?"

"Honestly? No, I can't say that I can…"

The right colours were there, sure, but other than that, all the different evolutions looked the same.

"And that's why I asked you to fix it; I laid down the foundations and you do the actual sculpting."

"And I told you that I don't have the capabilities for something like that."

Taichi brushed him aside. "You're the genius of the group. Look it up online or something."

"Even if we did have instructions, I doubt either of us would have the proper skills to follow said instructions."

"Can't be that difficult."

"I'm quite certain you're wrong."

Letting out a noise of frustration, Taichi walked to the kitchen table, pulling out a chair and taking a seat. He let his head drop onto the wood in front of him.

Shaking his head, Koushiro picked up the cake and carefully made his way to the table. He then walked towards the front door, pulling his laptop from the bag he had left there.

"You're really going to be looking up instructions?"

"Well we need to do _something_. We can't give Hikari a cake that looks like her Digimon partner exploded on the sides."

"I know." Taichi lamented, poking the icing with a finger.

Koushiro opened his laptop, sitting next to Taichi and slapping the tanned hand away from the cake in the process.

Taichi watched as Koushiro poised his fingers over the laptop keys. The genius paused. He turned to the brunet.

"What am I searching? How to decorate a cake? Or shall I be more specific?"

"How to decorate a cake with pictures of—" Realising that there probably wouldn't be instructions on how to decorate cakes with Digimon pictures, Taichi changed his course: "Pictures of cats."

With a firm nod, Koushiro's fingers flew over the keyboard, typing in the query.

Taichi leaned over to look at the screen.

"Oh, I like that one!"

"Taichi, we cannot possibly do something that complicated."

"Oh, then how about the one with the flowers, but make them look more like Hikari's crest?"

"Still too complicated."

Koushiro scrolled through the pictures, each more complicated and intricate than the next. At the end of the first search-result page, Koushiro leaned back into the chair.

"Taichi, I doubt we will manage anything other than circles with tails and ears—if we can even manage that."

Taichi quirked an eyebrow. "Meaning?"

"We should just stick to making Nyaromons on the sides and writing 'Happy birthday Hikari' in plain letters."

Taichi looked at his colourful blobs on the sides. "But she's mainly yellow. I don't think we have enough yellow icing."

Koushiro shrugged, looking uncertain. "Hikari won't mind if they're not accurate colour-wise, I'm sure."

Determined, Taichi stood up staring the cake down. "We are making all the evolutions! If we can make circles with tails and ears, then we can do them all, up to Tailmon. We can just make the bodies from circles: one for Nyaromon, two for Plotmon, and two for Tailmon."

"We can try…"

"That's the spirit!" Taichi cheered, slapping a hand on Koushiro's shoulder. "Now get to work." He sat back down, pushing the cake towards the shorter male.

Koushiro blinked at the cake, then at Taichi. "Um. Isn't this teamwork?"

"Yes." Taichi said, placing his hands behind his head and leaning back in his chair. "I put the right colour on, now you finish it up. Here," He leaned forward, pulling off some of the icing. "I'll remove the Angewomon icing. Just spread the other ones out a bit more and it'll be perfect."

Heaving a heavy sigh, Koushiro pulled off the yellow and purple icing, proceeding to try and mould the colours into something resembling circles.

Half an hour and a very bored Taichi later, Koushiro had something resembling Nyaromon on the tabletop in front of him.

"What do you think?" Koushiro asked, grinning at Taichi.

The brunet cast a glance at the piece of art and gave a nonchalant jerk of his head. "It'll do."

Koushiro frowned. "At least you can tell what it is now."

"Sure, but we need to hurry; there's only an hour or so until Hikari gets home."

Dark eyes widened, flying to the clock on the wall.

"Taichi! Why didn't you say so earlier? We need to hurry!"

"That's what I just said."

"You should have said earlier!"

"I tried, but you kept hushing me, telling me you needed to concentrate."

True, but: "You need to help, now, too! Start working on the text, and I'll make Plotmon."

In his rush to get Nyaromon onto the cake, Koushiro failed to take into account the icing sticking to the tabletop. It tore in half.

"Oh no!"

"It's fine. Just stick the halves on and blend the tear." Taichi said, peeling off the white icing from on top of the cake. He paused. "How are we going to make letters out of this?"

"Just make straight lines or something. Nothing fancy; we need to get this done now!"

Just then, the two hear a key turn in the lock.

Koushiro turned his eyes from the front door to Taichi. "Please tell me that's your mother."

"I hope so?"

"I'm home!" Came a cheery, young voice.

"Shit." Taichi cursed, giving Koushiro a look that demanded he finish the decorating whilst he distracted his sister.

In panic, Koushiro grabbed at the off-white icing, wondering how he would manage to make Plotmon's legs resemble Plotmon's legs. He paused, heart beating frantically as he heard Taichi ask Hikari why she was home so early. He decided to stick with his simplified plan and make more Nyaromons. Different colours would be cute, right?

"Come on, Taichi, move! I want a shower."

"But—"

Koushiro hear Hikari's footsteps and jumped out of his chair.

"Hi Hikari! We're not doing anything!" He yelled, placing himself in front of the cake. "Uh, happy birthday!"

Hikari's confused face split into a huge smile. "Koushiro, hi, and thank you! Did you come to celebrate my birthday?" She moved closer, arms offering a hug.

Koushiro raised his hands in front of himself, fending off the young woman. "Ah, I don't know if I'll be staying, I was just helping Taichi out with something." His dark eyes flew to Taichi, who was making his way to Hikari.

"Didn't you say you wanted a shower?" Taichi asked, pushing Hikari towards the bathroom by the shoulders.

Throwing an annoyed glance at her brother, the brunette marched towards her room. "You're both acting so weird; I know you're up to something."

When Hikari's door closed, Taichi rushed to Koushiro.

"Let's move the cake before she comes back out!"

"Why is she home this early?" Koushiro asked and grabbed the cake, moving it into the kitchen, away from Hikari's wandering eyes as she would go into the bathroom.

"One of her friends started feeling a bit sick, so they ended their outing early."

"I will be making different colour variations of Nyaromon for the sides. Start working on the text." Koushiro mumbled, distracted, ignoring Taichi's reply.

"Is that the best you can do?"

"Yes, with the time we have."

Hikari's room's door opened and the brunette walked out, throwing a frown at the two males in the kitchen.

"Enjoy your shower!" Koushiro shouted, getting a bewildered look from the younger Yagami and a glare from the elder.

"The hell?" Taichi asked.

"I panicked!" Koushiro said, getting back to fiddling with the icing.

Working frantically, the two managed to get three Nyaromon-resembling blobs around the sides of the cake and a 'HB Hikari' on top. It had taken them half an hour, which was not a moment too soon; they could hear the hairdryer in the bathroom turn off.

"Quick!" Taichi said, grabbing the cake. "Let's get it on the kitchen table and sing to her when she comes out."

"Need I remind you that we're not Yamato and Mimi; we can't sing."

"It's the thought that counts." Taichi hissed, just as the cake was on the table and Hikari stepped out of the bathroom.

Taichi started singing, Koushiro joining in a few seconds late. The noise was horrible, but Hikari seemed amused as she walked towards them.

The song ended with all three clapping.

"Thank you." Hikari smiled, moving to hug her brother, then wrapping her arms around Koushiro's neck.

"We made you a cake." Koushiro informed, a bit red in the face. "Or rather, we decorated it."

Hikari, who had eyed the cake suspiciously at first, brightened up. "Oh! Well, the decorations look really good." She squinted at the cake, tilting her head a bit. "Is that Nyaromon?"

"Yes!" Koushiro said, jerkily moving a bit further from the cake, so that Hikari could get a better look at the baked good. "I made them."

Hikari grinned, admiring the cake. "Thank you. It must have taken a lot of effort."

"Well, just a little bit."

Hikari giggled, squeezing her brother's hand in hers and pecking Koushiro on the cheek. "I love it."


	9. Stuck

**Requester:** 50cyg

 **Prompt:** "Looks like we're gonna be stuck here for a while." - Jou, Yamato and Taichi

Jou placed a book-filled cardboard box on a small landing in front of a door. He pushed the door's handle down.

"Um."

He tried again.

"Uh."

And again.

"Jou?" Yamato's voice came from the bottom of the stairs.

Jou heard Yamato's footsteps getting closer, followed by a heavier set.

"Jou?" Yamato repeated and again Jou was at a loss of what to say.

"What gives?" Taichi asked from behind Yamato, a few steps below Yamato, who was a few steps below Jou on the long staircase leading into the school's basement.

"Well…" Jou's voice cracked even on that one word.

"Seriously, Kido, these boxes aren't exactly light, you know." Taichi said, shifting the cardboard box in his arms.

Yamato shifted the one in his arms, too, but mainly to get a better look at the back of Jou's head.

"Well…" Jou said again. His eyes were firmly fixed on the metallic door handle.

"Spit it out, Jou!"

Ah, good old Yamato, always ready to get the truth out, even if the truth didn't want out. He was always demanding answers from others, but rarely gave any himself. Jou thought it unfair and was forced to wonder why the blond did that. Why was he willing to put so much effort into getting others to open up, when he never approached anyone with his problems or worries?

"Jou?" The concern in the blond's voice forced Jou out of his musings and made him accidentally turn around to face the other.

"Ah." Jou took half a step back, bumping into the basement door.

"Come on, Jou, these things are heavy! And Yamato made me carry the heavier one!"

Blue eyes turned from Jou to Taichi, narrowing during their journey. "You're the one who told Nijishima that you could get all these boxes up without Jou's or my help, so it's your fault." He smirked. "Or is the weak little princess ready to admit defeat and trade boxes with me?"

Taichi turned his head away with a pout. "Obviously I can handle this, no problem." He turned back to Jou. "But we should probably get a move on; Nijishima will be wondering what's taking us so long."

Nodding in agreement, Yamato turned back to Jou.

Jou turned back to the door.

"We have a slight problem."

Blue eyes widened, flitting from Jou's back to the door. "Don't tell me…"

"What?" Taichi asked, though he slowly and reluctantly arrived at the answer himself. "Looks like we're gonna be stuck here for a while."

"Joy." Yamato said and placed his box on the step he was currently standing on. He took three steps up to join Jou at the door.

"Hey, me too!" Taichi said, placing his box down and racing the steps up two at a time.

Jou tried the door handle again. "I'm doing it right, aren't I?"

"It's like any other handle, I'm sure." Yamato consoled.

"Let me try." Taichi reached over, rattling the handle. "Yeah." He affirmed. "We're locked in here."

"Thanks for that."

Taichi gave Yamato a disinterested look. "I'm not liking your sarcastic tone today, Mister."

"Yeah, well, I'm not liking being stuck in here with you."

Taichi shrugged. "Hey, at least you've also got Jo—wait."

Yamato burst into laughter, whilst Jou stuck with chuckling, not wanting to start an argument. He needn't have worried, though, as Taichi soon joined Yamato in laughing. This, in turn, got Jou to laugh, which caused the two younger males to laugh even harder.

Soon the whole basement was echoing with the sound of pure, uncontrolled joy.

"Phew." Taichi said after what, to his abs, felt like forever. "What were we laughing at, anyway?"

"Who cares?" Yamato asked, wiping a stray tear from the corner of his eye, hand pressing on his stomach. "Gosh, I really needed that."

"I bet." Taichi said. "When's the last time you actually laughed?"

"I don't know; when's the last time you did something stupid?"

Taichi stuck his tongue out at Yamato—a gesture which the blond was more than happy to return.

Chuckling, Jou waved his hands up and down in a placating manner. "Now, now. We really need to figure out how to get out of here."

Yamato shrugged, shoving his hands into the pockets of his uniform. "We just have to wait for Nishijima to come looking for us. Not much else we can do, is there?"

"But that's so boring!" Taichi said, throwing an arm over Yamato's shoulders. He received a glare, though it didn't faze him in the least. "Where's your spirit of adventure?"

"It was smart and went home after school let out."

Taichi threw his head back.

"Yamato's right." Jou said, stepping into the conversation. "We can't really do much since there's no lock on the inside."

Taichi wrinkled his nose in confusion. "Who makes a door with no lock on the inside?"

"Maybe the bogeyman that lives down there." Yamato pointed into the darkness below them; the motion-detector light had not sensed motion in a while. "It probably feeds off high schoolers that are dumb enough to get locked in here."

Taichi rolled his eyes and detached himself from the blond. "You're being less fun than usual, today."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. What should I do to be more fun? Shall I sing you a song?"

"Sing me a love song and I'm all ears." Taichi said moving down a step and smirking over his shoulder.

Yamato shot him a flat look. "Get over yourself."

Meanwhile, Jou had been contemplating the door's surrounding. "There doesn't seem to be an emergency phone here." He turned to the other two. "Do you guys think there's one downstairs?"

With a shrug, Taichi loped down the stairs. Yamato followed him, followed by Jou.

Taichi again threw a grin over his shoulder. "Too irresistible for you, _Yama_? Stalking me now?"

"Don't flatter yourself."

Taichi let out a 'ha' of laughter, whilst Jou shook his head.

"Honestly you two…"

"What?" Yamato asked over his shoulder.

"Oh, nothing, really." Jou waved a hand casually. "Just thinking that one could cut the sexual tension between you two with a knife."

Yamato paled, hurrying down the stairs and deciding not to comment. It's not like Taichi had heard the remark anyway.

"Did someone say knife?" Taichi asked peeking out from behind a stack of boxes to Yamato's right. "Are we talking about Knife of Ramen?"

"Sure, Taichi."

"Knife of Ramen?" Jou asked, blinking questioningly at Yamato.

Yamato gave him a look that said to drop it.

"I don't see a phone..."

"Keep looking." Jou said, moving further to the left, searching the walls. "There must be one in here somewhere for emergencies…"

"Hello? Yagami? Ishida? Kido?"

"We're saved!" Taichi shouted, running back to the bottom of the staircase.

"Yagami?" Nishijima stepped further into the basement, squinting at the three young men. "I came looking for you, since you were taking so long. What's taking so long anyway? Can't you find the boxes?"

"We found them." Jou said, pointing to the ones on the stairs. "But the door locked itself."

"Locked itself?" Nishijima looked from Jou to the door and back again. "This door can't lock itself; it's not built like that. See?"

A chorus of 'No!' drowned out the clicking of the door.

"Boys." Nishijima gave them a meaningful look as he placed a hand on the handle. He pushed it down.

Nothing happened.

He tried again.

"Um."

Yamato slapped his forehead, Jou shook his head, and Taichi rushed up the stairs to join Nishijima.

Again Taichi rattled the handle. "Yeah." His hand moved away from the handle into his hair. "Looks like we're gonna be stuck here again." He turned to smirk downstairs. "Hey, Knife of Ramen, how about that song now?"


	10. Still stuck

**Continuation to the previous chapter, where the three were stuck in the school basement and Nishijima joined them.**

"So let me get this straight." Jou said, sitting in a circle with the others on the cold concrete floor of the basement. Nishijima to his right, Yamato to the left, Taichi across. "You sent the rest of the group home and came looking for us?"

Nishijima coughed into his fist, stalling for time.

"Yes..?" He himself seemed unsure whether he was asking or answering.

Yamato ran a hand over his face, eyes moving up in a silent prayer. Taichi glanced at his best friend, before fixing their teacher with an unamused look. Jou fixed his glasses.

All eyes turned to Yamato as he took a deep breath and asked: "Do you at least have your phone with you?"

Nishijima threw him a glare.

"Of course I have my phone." Proudly, he pulled it out, tapping at the keypad. A pause. He tapped again. "Uh."

"What?" Taichi asked, leaning over to try and get a look at the screen.

"…there's no reception."

"What?" Taichi repeated.

Nishijima waved his phone around in the air, trying to find signal.

"We can't contact anyone?" Jou asked, eyeing Yamato warily; the blond was the perfect image of the calm before the storm.

"Well, wait." Nishijima said. He got up and starting walking around the room, waving his phone in the air.

He paused frowning at the phone.

"Still nothing?" Jou also got up to join the teacher. "Try closer to the door?"

"Good idea."

Nishijima and Jou both made their way up the stairs.

"Signal!" Nishijima cheered, quickly tapping at his keypad again. He brought the device to his ear and waited for it to ring.

And he waited.

Jou leaned closer, trying to hear the beeping that indicated the call was going through. He heard nothing. Worried, Jou looked down at his two friends.

Yamato was rubbing his face aggressively, whilst Taichi was rubbing his shoulder gently.

Brown eyes met two pairs of obsidian. He raised his eyebrows in a question.

Nishijima pursed his lips, dropped the eye contact, along with the hand holding the phone, and shook his head.

"No one's picking up?" Taichi's question caused Yamato to look at him, then at Nishijima on top of the stairs.

"No one?" Yamato pressed.

"Well…" Nishijima cast a quick glance at Jou, as if begging the younger man to shield him from what he knew was going to be an onslaught of hate. He mumbled something.

Jou's eyes widened and he stared, mouth agape, at Nishijima.

Taichi and Yamato looked at each other, then at the two men above them.

"What?" They asked in unison.

"He said that his phone died." Jou tattled, in almost full-fledged panic.

Nishijima grimaced. That was not how he wanted the two youngest to find out.

"Are you kidding me?" Taichi asked, standing up, fists clenched at his sides.

Yamato rearranged himself, bringing his knees up, arms wrapped around them, and buried his face into them. Taichi glanced at him and continued his questioning:

"So we're stuck in here until someone, someday needs something from here and opens the door?"

"That'll probably be tomorrow." Nishijima said, throwing a glance at Jou before the two started making their way down the stairs. "I mean, it's a school day tomorrow, so Takenouchi or someone will wonder where we are and come looking for us in here."

"I'm going to be late for school. And I haven't even finished my homework." Jou lamented, sitting next to Yamato, mimicking his posture.

"I'll give you a note to give to your teachers and explain the situation." Nishijima assured, patting Jou on the head.

Yamato stood up, eyes on the floor. Taichi looked him over, concerned.

"Alright?"

Yamato lifted his eyes at Taichi's question and looked around. He walked towards the back of the basement, poking at some boxes against the far wall.

"If we're going to be stuck here for the night, then we should probably find something soft to make beds out of."

"Is there anything?" Taichi asked, joining the blond. He looked into one of the cardboard boxes. "Hey, there are clothes in here! Those will work."

Yamato nodded. "They're probably leftover costumes form some plays and other performances."

Taichi started going through the closest box. "Does Knife of Ramen store their performance clothes in here? Aha!" He pulled out a light green princess-dress. "Apparently you do."

"Har har."

Jou and Nishijima chose that moment to join the two and look for bedding material.

"So what's the deal with this 'Knife of Ramen?'" Nishijima whispered to Jou, sifting through a box.

"I'm not really sure." Jou admitted, leaning over the same box and speaking from the corner of his mouth. "It's one of their things."

"Meaning?"

"They have these things that they do and say that no one else really understands. We've all just learned to accept and mostly ignore that stuff."

"Ah, I think I get it."

Taichi and Yamato had abandoned the boxes and were standing with their arms crossed over their chests. They were eying the two elders.

"You do realise," Yamato started, "that we can hear you, right?"

Startled out of their bedding search, Jou and Nishijima looked over at the two.

Jou looked sheepish and rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, sorry, I didn't mean anything bad by it."

Taichi's arms fell back to his sides and he cocked his head. "What other things are there?"

Yamato glanced at Taichi, then back at Jou, giving the latter a curt nod that told him to answer Taichi's question.

"Well, it's stuff like… I don't know… Just these little things you do and… stuff."

"Descriptive." Yamato commented.

"It's not that easy to explain." Jou whined. "It's just what you do."

"So about sleeping here." Nishijima said, breaking up the budding fight and changing topics. "We should, instead, stay up most of the night telling ghost stories." He looked excited at his own idea.

"We have school tomorrow." Jou pointed out.

Nishijima brushed that aside. "I'll let you all skip to make up for the trauma of being stuck in here."

"You're not my teacher, though. And even if you did manage to get me permission to skip, I can't afford to miss even a single class or I'll fall behind even more."

"And I'm not skipping class just to listen to some stupid ghost stories." Yamato said, glaring at Nishijima.

"Scared?" Taichi smirked, elbowing Yamato in the side. "I can sleep next to you and hold your hand, if you want."

Yamato turned his glare at the brunet. "Shove it."

"Where?" Taichi grinned, leaning in.

Nishijima laughed openly. "Didn't you know, Taichi? There's really only one place you _can_ 'shove it.'"

Yamato blushed hotly and turned away, moving to look behind the stacked boxes.

Jou coughed into his hand, slight blush on his cheeks, and grabbed some random pieces of clothing. "Since we can't do anything about dinner, we should get started on those stories or get an early night."

"Ghost stories!" Nishijima voted, grabbing at some stray costumes and throwing them onto the floor in a heap. He flopped down on them heavily. "Ouch." His hand dug around the pile underneath and he pulled out a plastic dagger. "Thankfully it's not real." He tossed it aside, then looked at the teens with a predatory grin. "I might start with this one story that does involve a real dagger."

"Really?" Yamato asked flatly. He had found some padded mats behind the boxes, and he and Taichi were arranging them on the floor. "We're honestly going along with the ghost story idea?"

"Of course. And I'm starting it off."

Yamato gave Taichi a look, but the other just shrugged with a: "Not like we have anything better to do with our time." He offered the light green dress to Yamato. "Blanket?"

Yamato accepted with a wary look. "Not really a blanket, though, is it?"

Taichi smiled at the unsaid 'thank you.' "Cover, then."

"Whatever."

"Can I start telling the story already?"

"Wait." Jou hurried to pull out one of the mats Yamato had discovered. "I haven't organised myself yet."

Nishijima waited for a minute, then started telling his story, when Jou had settled.

Two and a half ghost stories later had everyone a bit edgy. The basement was creepy enough without the lurking thoughts of them not being alone.

"And then," Nishijima continued his story. "The door—"

The door burst open and the four males jumped, emitting startled sounds that none would later admit to.

"Daigo?" Himekawa's voice echoed around the basement.

Hearts racing, the four males stared at each other for a few seconds before rushing to the bottom of the stairs in unison. Maki stood at the top with the door held open into freedom.

"Maki!" Nishijima had never been so happy to see his old friend.

"We've been saved!" Taichi cheered.

"I'm so glad someone came for us!" Jou praised.

"Whatever you do, don't close the door!" Yamato yelled over everyone else.

Everyone stared at the blond, who just shrugged.

"It's how we got stuck in here in the first place. Twice."

Maki stared at them, as if unsure of their mental states. "Twice? What?"

"We've been locked in here for hours." Yamato explained from the bottom of the stairs. "The door locks itself if you close it. And, for some strange reason, there's no lock on this side."

Maki blinked at the door she was holding open. "Be that as it may, you kids should get home; your parents must be worried already."

The four started making their way up the stairs, glad that the ordeal was almost over.

Himekawa glared at Nishijima. "I tried calling you, but it wouldn't connect. Izumi said that you'd sent everyone home except these three. I tried calling everyone, but no one answered."

"Our phones are in our bags, which are back in the classroom." Jou said, being the first to reach the door. Himekawa let him pass, into freedom. "Thanks."

Yamato followed Jou, nodding his thanks to Himekawa. Taichi followed after Yamato, arms stretching above his head when he got into the hallway.

Nishijima, followed by Himekawa, were last out.

"Thank you very much for letting us out." Jou said, bowing to Himekawa. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to hurry home to finish my homework." With that, he left in a rush, heading for Nishijima's classroom.

"You two should hurry home, too." Himekawa said to Taichi and Yamato.

"Yeah, I guess my mum's wondering why I wasn't home for dinner."

"Dad's probably wondering where dinner _is_."

Taichi threw an arm around Yamato's shoulders, leading him towards the classroom and their bags.

"I wouldn't worry; you always have something in the freezer, right?"

"Yeah, but it's not as good as having a fresh meal." Yamato's face scrunched up at the thought of having to re-heat old food. Taichi just laughed.

"I'm sure your dad won't mind, as long as it's food."

The two reached the classroom and moved away from each other, towards their respective bags.

"Guess so." Yamato grabbed his bag, then smiled. "At least he'll appreciate the reason why dinner wasn't ready."

"You mean he'll be laughing his ass off?"

"Yep."

The teens made their way down the stairs and out of the school. It was already dark out, so they quickened their pace.

"Looking back on it, it really was quite funny, wasn't it?"

"It'll definitely make for an amusing story, that's for sure."

The two walked for a few minutes in silence.

"You know," Taichi got a sly look on his face. "I never did get that private love song."

Yamato shoved him playfully. "In your dreams, Juliet."

"Hey!" Taichi grabbed Yamato in a headlock. "I'm Romeo; wasn't that your dress in the basement?"

"Oh, right." Yamato said, pushing Taichi off him with a laugh. "How could I have forgotten?"

"Whatever will you wear tomorrow?"

Yamato stopped walking and held his hands out towards Taichi. "I have nothing else to wear! Will you come back with me to get it?"

Taichi had also stopped and took Yamato's offered hands. "I'd follow you anywhere. Let's go!"

The two laughed, and continued on their way home, hand in hand.


	11. The shiner

**Requester:** 50cyg

 **Prompt:** "Who gave you that black eye?" – Taichi and Yamato

"Who gave you that black eye?"

Rolling his eyes, Yamato turned around and marched the other way down the street. Taichi followed.

"Seriously, who was it?"

Again, Yamato ignored the brunet and turned down yet another street.

"Come on, Yamato, tell me."

Yamato was forced to a stop as a brick wall came into view. A dead end.

Silently admitting defeat, Yamato turned—almost in a bored manner—to face his boyfriend.

"Yama?" Taichi brought a hand up to gently touch the corner of Yamato's eye. "Tell me who gave this to you."

"Sora."

Silence followed by a bewildered: "Sora?"

"Sora."

Taichi blinked rapidly in succession, hand having fallen back to his side.

"But… Why would Sora punch you?"

Shaking his head in an amused fashion, Yamato pushed past Taichi and started making his way back towards the main street and his original destination: the convenience store.

"Nobody said that she punched me."

Taichi rushed to catch up with the blond, falling into step beside him.

"But you said that Sora gave you that black eye."

"Yes."

Taichi gave Yamato an expectant look, which the blond ignored in favour of grabbing a shopping basket.

"Will you be joining dad and me for dinner tonight?"

"Thanks."

Yamato nodded in acknowledgement of the acceptance and moved to the fresh vegetable section. Taichi stayed a few steps behind, watching the blond pick out things on his mental shopping list. As much as he wanted to badger his boyfriend about the black eye, he knew better than to pursue the conversation in the store. Instead, he occupied himself by trying to figure out what Yamato had planned for dinner. Not that it ever really worked, since the blond had a way of always surprising him with the end result.

An hour later the two boys were making their way to the apartment complex Yamato and his father lived in.

Taichi cast a sideways glance at Yamato.

"So?"

"So what?"

"About that eye."

"It was an accident."

Taichi almost missed a step, hastily moving his feet to correct his footing.

"How does someone hit someone else by accident?"

"I told you she didn't hit me."

Taichi stopped and so did Yamato. They stood facing each other on the street, ignoring the passersby that gave them odd looks.

"Could you, please, for once, stop being so cryptic and tell me what happened?"

With a sigh, Yamato motioned for Taichi to keep moving. They continued their journey.

"Remember how I went to help Sora with her garden yesterday?"

Taichi nodded. Sora had asked him, too, but he had bluntly told her he didn't want to help and that had been the end of that conversation.

"Well, we were moving this really big rock. Not a lot; just trying to budge it about a foot closer to the fence."

"And the neighbour got mad at you and punched you?"

Yamato threw Taichi an annoyed look. "This is why we have so many misunderstandings; you never let me finish!"

"Okay, okay." Taichi placed his hands in front of himself, as if to fend off the mounting wrath. "Please continue." He grinned charmingly, earning a shy smile in return.

"Anyway, we were pushing the rock and managed to get it to the right spot. But then, as Sora was starting to stand, my foot slipped on the mud and I started falling. We bumped heads. Well, more like I smacked my face into the top of Sora's head."

Taichi stopped again, frozen in amazement. He blinked a few times, face blank. His right hand came up to face-level, palm facing down, whilst his left hand turned palm up. The hands moved, one up the other down, and met in the middle in a smack.

Yamato looked a bit uncomfortable, eyes flitting from one spot on the ground to another. "That's the gist of it, yeah."

Taichi burst out laughing; he clutched at his stomach, doubling over whilst trying to get a sufficient amount of air into his lungs.

Passersby gave them strange looks again, and Yamato shifted in embarrassment. He switched the groceries from one hand to the other, glancing at his apartment complex, visible just down the road.

"Taichi?" He tried, quiet enough to not draw even more attention to them, but loud enough for Taichi to hear him over his laughing. "Taichi, we really should get going…" He eyed his building again.

"Right." Taichi said, still chuckling. "Let's…" He burst into laughter again.

Frustrated, Yamato grabbed Taichi's bicep and proceeded to drag him to the complex.

Upon entering the apartment, Yamato released Taichi and marched into the kitchen. He needed to get the groceries into the right cupboards.

"Oh, come on, Yamato." Taichi followed the blond into the kitchen, finally over his laughing fit. "I'm sorry, but it's just so funny. Sora gave you a black eye!"

Yamato braced himself against the kitchen counter and released a large breath.

"This is why I didn't tell you."

Still looking amused, Taichi walked up behind Yamato, hugging him from behind and burying his face in the back of Yamato's head.

"I'm sorry for laughing at you…"

"…but I have to admit, it's funny?"

Taichi gave a squeeze. "Exactly." He pecked Yamato's shoulder, then looked over it. "Whatcha cooking?"

Yamato chuckled, gently shoving an elbow into Taichi's stomach. "Food. Now go sit down and wait."

"Ah, you're no fun."

Taichi made to go sit at the table, but a hand on his wrist stopped him.

"I may not be fun, but I can cook. Very well, I might add." Yamato kissed Taichi before the other had time to protest the first point.

With a grin, Taichi went to sit down at the kitchen table. He watched Yamato move about, fiddling with a pen that had been on the table.

A key turned in the lock of the front door. A set of heavy footsteps entered, the door closed, and a tired voice called out:

"I'm home, Yamato. Hello, Taichi."

Oddly eagar, Taichi jumped from the chair, disappearing into the short hall to greet Hiroaki.

"Sora gave Yamato a black eye."

Yamato slapped his face with the hand not holding a knife.

"So I heard. How's it look today?"

"Black."

The two brunets entered the kitchen and Yamato threw a smile at his father.

"Welcome home. I'm just making dinner, so go get washed up."

"Sure." Hiroaki said, then gave Taichi a smug look. "Trust me, it will get even darker than that."

"Dad." A warning.

"You know it will. Remember that time you fell on th—"

"Thank you." Yamato forced out through gritted teeth, turning a glare on Hiroaki. "I remember. Now go get washed or I'm putting so much chili in this that your mouth will burn for the rest of the month."

"Right, right." Hiroaki chuckled and left the kitchen.

Taichi's eyes moved from where Hiroaki had been to Yamato's back. He bit his lower lip lightly.

"The time you fell on the what?"

Within a second, Yamato had slammed his knife down and turned his death glare on his boyfriend.

"No."

Taichi's hands were in front of him in a defensive gesture and his foot took half a step back.

"Okay, okay. Clearly not something you find amusing, even to this day."

Deflating noticeably, Yamato returned to his cooking. The silence reigned as Yamato put some of the ingredients into a wok.

"I do find it amusing, since it's been years, but I think my current bruise is enough embarrassment for this month. I'll tell you some other time."

"Month?"

"At least. Maybe more."

Taichi's face scrunched up in sympathy. Then it brightened.

"I know!"

"I _don't_ want to know." Some more vegetables went into the wok.

"No, seriously, we need to come up with a badass story for that bruise."

"No."

"Come on, why not?"

"Because I don't want to spread any stupid rumours. I just want the bruise to disappear and be forgotten."

"It won't be for a month." Taichi returned to his earlier seat at the table. "You can't exactly cover something like that up."

Yamato pulled out plates, chopsticks, and glasses, placing them in a pile on the table. Taichi took his cue and set them in the right places.

Hiroaki returned, sniffing the air cautiously.

"We avoided the onslaught of chili?" He semi-whispered to Taichi and took a seat across from the teen.

Taichi just grinned and Yamato threw an amused look over his shoulder as he stirred the food.

Hiroaki propped his elbow on the table, placing his chin into his palm. His other hand played with a chopstick, in a similar fashion to how Taichi had been toying with the pen earlier.

"Who'd _you_ think it was?"

Taichi's eyes moved from Yamato's back to Hiroaki. He shrugged, expression indifferent.

"Didn't really speculate. Would have beaten anyone up."

Hiroaki gave a bark of laughter and Yamato turned around, wok and trivet in hand.

"You do realise that I'd have beaten the same anyone to death, right?"

"Not to death. I just mean that I'd have let them recover from your beating and then beat them again."

Shaking his head, Yamato sat in his chair and pushed the spatula Taichi's way. Guests first.

"Not Sora, though."

"No, definitely not Sora. We don't touch Sora." Taichi agreed, shaking his head vigorously.

Hiroaki took the offered spatula from Taichi.

"As the adult, I should probably say something about violence not solving anything, but I won't." He passed the spatula on, taking note of the surprised looks. "I'd probably have beaten this 'anyone' up, too."

Yamato's hand came up to cover his face, muffling his chuckles. Taichi gave a cheer, clapping his hands.

"Boys, boys. There will be no beating anyone up since it was an accident." He slapped his hands together. "Let's eat!"


	12. Insecurity

**Requester:** 50cyg

 **Prompt:** "Do you really think I could ever replace you?" – Jou and Yamato

 _I'm really sorry, I can't make it. Our study session is taking a lot longer than we anticipated. I'm so sorry. I'll make it up to you, I promise!_

Yamato gripped his phone tighter. It wasn't fair; Jou never seemed to have time for him anymore. At the beginning of their relationship, when they'd lived separately, he'd made time. Nowadays, Jou was always studying with classmates and blowing him off.

Of course, Yamato understood that Jou was in his final year of medical school and, at 29, was one of the oldest students there. His numerous failed attempts at getting into medical school and the extra lessons he had to take had held him back quite a bit.

Yamato knew Jou really had to get his act together if he wanted to graduate. But that didn't stop Yamato from silently griping about it.

The two were supposed to have one of their date nights, but Jou had, yet again, cancelled.

Yamato tossed his phone onto the kitchen table and slumped into a chair. He placed his face in his palms, breathing deeply.

The casserole in the oven was going to go dry. Yamato didn't care. He should care; he worked as a chef at quite a nice restaurant. His food was supposed to be impeccable! He chose not to care. There was no one around to witness his failure, anyway.

Yet, with a frustrated growl, Yamato got up and removed the casserole from the oven. It was still good. Thank God.

He wasn't supposed to care. But he did.

Just like with Jou. He had thought about leaving the older man, but any time the thought crossed his mind, he crushed it immediately. He didn't want to. He loved Jou. Jou was just busy with his studies. Things would improve.

But, an annoying voice in the back of his mind nagged. How busy was he going to be as a full-fledged doctor? Constantly on-call. Phone ringing during dinner. Pager beeping in the middle of sex.

Yamato looked down at the casserole. He wasn't hungry. He covered the food and left it to cool down on the counter.

He needed to strum a few chords or play a few songs on his bass.

Hours later, Yamato was gently awoken by a hand shaking his shoulder and a soft voice whispering his name.

"Hn? Jou?"

Yamato blinked his eyes open to a blurry image of his boyfriend leaning over him.

"Hey." Jou smiled. "Let's get you into bed. Sleeping on the couch is a sure way to get neck and back pain."

Jou held out his hands, palms up, and Yamato slapped his own into them lazily.

"Too tired."

Jou sniggered, reaching over to wrap his arms around Yamato's torso, bodily pulling him into a standing position.

"Come on."

Yamato leaned most of his weight on Jou, who didn't seem to mind, if his chuckling was any indication.

Three steps towards the bedroom had Yamato stopping.

"Wait." Slightly more awake, he looked over his shoulder towards the kitchen. "The casserole. I left it on the counter. It'll go bad if I don't put it in the fridge." He made to pull away from Jou, but the taller held firm.

"It's alright; I put the casserole away already. I wouldn't want either of us getting food poisoning tomorrow."

Yamato glared, insulted that his boyfriend would think his cooking could give anyone food poisoning. Ever.

Jou leaned over to place a kiss on top of Yamato's head, continuing to lead him into their bedroom.

Once in, Yamato pulled off his clothes, tossing them into the hamper by the door. He then crawled into the double bed, onto the side closer to the wall.

Jou, on the other hand, took his time getting undressed and pulling on his pyjamas. He always insisted on being dressed in bed, no matter how hot it was or what activities had preceded sleep.

Only half-awake, Yamato watched his boyfriend move around the room in a well-calculated fashion. Everything Jou did had purpose. Yamato smiled. It was one of the ways he knew that Jou wanted to be with him. _They_ had purpose.

Jou's phone beeped and Yamato's smile fell.

Or, at least they had had purspose.

Recently, though, Yamato didn't feel like he fulfilled a purpose in Jou's life. If he did, then wouldn't the elder be trying to spend more time with him? Put aside some time, even half an hour a day for _them_. It's not like they lived in separate apartments and seeing each other would require extra arrangements to meet up somewhere else.

Yamato snapped out of his musings when Jou chuckled.

"What's funny?"

"Oh." Jou looked up from his phone at Yamato, then back down. He typed out a quick reply. "It's nothing, really; just a medical joke from one of the guys in the study group. It probably wouldn't make sense to you." He was evidently reminded of the joke because he chuckled again.

Yamato turned to face the wall. His heart felt like it was being squeezed tightly.

"Yamato?" Jou questioned, sitting on his side of the bed and placing his glasses on the bedside table. "Sleeping?"

Yamato gave a jerky nod.

"I'm not so sure about that." Jou placed a hand on his shoulder. "Is it about me standing you up tonight? I promise I'll make it up to you."

"It's nothing."

"Yamato." A warning tone, which Yamato had been subjected to quite often. It held a promise of Jou not giving up until the blond admitted what was wrong with him.

Rolling over with a sigh, Yamato fixed Jou with a sad look.

"Is this really working?"

Jou looked confused.

"Us."

Jou's eyes widened at the clarification and he hastened to move fully onto the bed, giving Yamato his full attention.

"Y—wha—why are you asking that? Are you breaking up with me?" Jou's latter question was almost a whisper and his eyes reflected the panic he felt inside.

Yamato sat up, brining him near-eye level with Jou, though he chose to look down at his lap.

"No, I'm not, but if you want to break up with me, then I'll accept that."

Jou was stumped and his mouth opened and closed a few times, until he finally managed: "Why would I want to break up with you? Why are you asking about this? What brought this on?"

Yamato picked at his nails, head still lowered. Jou leant forward, trying to catch a glimpse of his boyfriend's blue eyes.

"Aren't I too stupid for you?"

Jou barely hear the mumbled question. He stared. Then he laughed.

"Stupid? You? When have you ever been stupid? You've helped me study so much and you understand most of my assignments better than I do!"

"Yeah, but." Yamato paused, biting his lip. "You don't want my help anymore or even spend time with me. I just thought that you'd be happier with one of your medical friends. With someone in the same field."

"Do you really think I could ever replace you?"

Surprised, Yamato looked up into earnest obsidian eyes. Jou took his hands, entwining their fingers.

"I could never replace you." He reiterated. "I could never find anyone to love as much as I love you. You believe me, right?"

Yamato nodded, though his eyes told a different story.

"You know," Jou started, trying a different tactic. "I used to feel really insecure around your rock-star friends. They were all so much cooler and better looking than me. I thought you might have wanted to be with them rather than with me."

An unwitting laugh made its way out of Yamato's mouth.

"Why would I have wanted any of them?"

"Exactly." Jou smiled, squeezing Yamato's hands. "Why would _I_ want any of those medical students?" He brought the hands up, kissing Yamato's fingers. "I don't want anyone apart from you."

"Okay."

Jou's smile fell slightly. "I promise I'll make more time for you. I've just been so busy with studying."

"We can study together." Yamato suggested, albeit a bit uncertainly.

"Really? Isn't that really boring and lame?"

Yamato rolled his eyes, extracting his hands from Jou's. "I find it quite interesting." He lay on the bed, smirking at Jou.

With an incredulous shake of his head, Jou lay down next to the blond. "You're weird. Though you'd make a good doctor—or at least a good medical student."

Yamato scrunched his face up. "Nah, learning about horrible diseases is just a hobby. I wouldn't want to be a doctor; I'm happy where I am right now."

"Glad to hear it." Jou leaned over to lay a kiss on Yamato's lips. "I'll hold you to your promise about those study sessions. I really need to pass all my classes this year."

Yamato laughed. Good old worrywart Jou.


	13. Half-year plans

**Requester:** taiyamalover

 **Prompt:** "We're dressing up for Halloween this year and that's final."– Taichi and Yamato

"We're dressing up for Halloween this year and that's final." No greeting, just a command.

"Um, okay?" Yamato said, warily eyeing Taichi in his doorway. "But just so you know, Halloween is like half a year away."

"I know." Taichi said, stepping into Yamato's apartment without invitation. "We'll need all the time we can get to prepare the best costumes ever."

"Ever?" Yamato asked with a raised eyebrow and followed Taichi further into the apartment.

"Yes, ever." Taichi said, spinning on the spot with his hands behind his back. He grinned at Yamato. "Are you ready to go?"

"Go where?"

"Shopping for costumes, of course."

Yamato stood in the hallway, blinking at his boyfriend.

It was a Saturday morning and the high schoolers had planned to meet up today to do something. It had never crossed Yamato's mind that that 'something' would involve shopping for Halloween costumes.

At around 15, Taichi had taken an interest in how he dressed. That was fine; nothing wrong with wanting to look good.

For three years, Yamato had been happy to have a well-dressed best friend. Sure, it had had its downside: Taichi looking good only made Yamato's crush on him grow. Of course, that attraction had been mutual, so it had worked out in the end.

Now that they were dating, though, Yamato hated how much effort Taichi put into clothes. It wasn't even the getting dressed part that Yamato hated. In fact, Taichi was quite quick to pick out clothes to don for the day. No, it was the shopping for clothes part that Yamato hated.

Well, Yamato hated shopping, period. Groceries were fine, since he had a list, stuck to it, and was quick to navigate through the store. Clothes-shopping was a whole different matter. With Taichi, it was even worse.

"Hello?" Taichi was waving a hand in front of Yamato's face. He grinned when Yamato's eyes snapped to attention. "There you are." He leaned in for a chaste kiss. "Ready?"

"Yeah." Yamato sighed, defeated. "Let me just grab my wallet and we can go."

When shopping for clothes, the brunet would take ages mixing and matching items, trying them on and asking for Yamato's opinion. Yamato never knew what to say.

Fine, good, alright, great, nice.

Sexy.

None of those words worked. Taichi would always frown, look himself over in the mirror and disappear back into the changing room. He would tweak or completely change his outfit, then come back out. Rinse and repeat.

Half a year of dating and Yamato still hadn't figured out the magic combination of words that would end his misery quickly.

Yamato was jolted out of his musings as the bus they were in came to a stop and Taichi grabbed his wrist.

"Come on, this is our stop." Taichi said, pulling the blond up from his seat and down from the bus. "Jeez, you're really spacey today."

"Sorry."

Yamato followed Taichi through the automatic glass doors of the shopping mall. His shoulders were slumped and his eyes were flitting around in discomfort. He felt Taichi's fingers lace through his and looked at his boyfriend.

Taichi had an understanding smile on his face.

"I know you hate shopping, but I promise this will be fun." He squeezed Yamato's hand briefly before letting go. "I know exactly which stores to hit and where we'll be grabbing lunch."

Yamato hesitated for a second. "…Lunch is a few hours away, still."

"I know. But picking out costumes and trying them on will take a few hours."

Taichi chose to ignore Yamato's mumbled prayer.

The first store they entered sold party supplies, including costumes. The costume section was small, but it seemed to be enough for Taichi.

"Oh, go as a cat!" Taichi exclaimed, pointing to the package containing ears, a tail, and some face paints.

Yamato cast him a surprised glance, ears a bit red from the attention Taichi was drawing to them.

"Go where, exactly?"

Taichi shrugged, still eyeing the cat accessories on display. "There are bound to be Halloween parties. If not, we'll just arrange one for the Chosen."

Yamato contemplated his boyfriend for a minute. "Okay."

Surprised, Taichi's head snapped to the blond. "What?"

Yamato mimicked Taichi's earlier movement and shrugged. "Okay, as in: okay, I'll go as a cat to this non-existent Halloween party." He grabbed the black option. "Will you be going as a cat, too?"

Taichi looked absolutely horrified as Yamato grabbed a white set.

Ignorant of the mistake he was making, Yamato turned, the two packages of costumes in hand, and started making his way towards the till.

In panic, Taichi lunged for the blond's arm, halting the other's movements.

"No, no, no, no, no. No."

Yamato blinked down at the man hanging on his left arm. "Um, dog, then?"

" No." Taichi straightened, bringing him eye-level with Yamato. "You're missing the point of the whole exercise."

At Yamato's blank look, Taichi rolled his eyes. He took the costume packages from the blond's hands, hanging them back on the small racks. He grabbed the beige cat ears on display and put them on Yamato's head.

"There we go." He took the belt with the matching tail, intent on wrapping it around Yamato's waist.

That didn't sit well with the blond; he grabbed both of Taichi's wrists and held them apart from each other and far from his waist.

"What are you doing?" Yamato's face was red as he mumbled out the words.

Taichi cocked his head to the side, tugging his hands back to himself. "This is the whole point of the exercise: we try different things on."

Yamato was stumped and Taichi took the opportunity to wrap the tail around his boyfriend's midsection. He stepped back to survey the effect.

"Hmm."

Yamato stood there, between the shelves of the store, with pointed ears and a tail. He looked idiotic, he was sure of it.

Taichi made a motion with his hand, telling Yamato to turn around. Yamato did so, showing of his tail, feeling even more stupid. He looked over his shoulder, to gauge Taichi's reaction. It was contemplative.

Suddenly Taichi shook his head.

"Nah, won't work." He walked over to Yamato and started undoing the tail-belt. "Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of you dressed as a cat, but not like this. You'd have to be naked, or at least close to it."

Yamato blushed, ripping the ears off his head.

Taichi turned around to put the tail back when Yamato shoved the ears onto the brunet's head.

"Isn't the whole point of the exercise to try on different things? You know, _both_ of us trying on stuff."

Taichi, tail in hand, turned around, looking confused.

Yamato felt something in him respond. Okay, maybe Taichi had a point about the kitty-cosplay; it would work, but only in privacy.

Oblivious to his boyfriend's thoughts, Taichi just shook his head in disbelief and removed the ears. He replaced both accessories and grabbed Yamato's wrist again, pulling him out and into the next store on his mental list.

This store was completely focussed on costumes; it looked like a regular clothing store, but the racks were lined with costumes of various designs and sizes.

Yamato stood at the entrance to the store, stared in for a few seconds, and turned to give Taichi a blank look. "Why didn't we just come to this one right away?"

"Because that would be no fun." Taichi said and grabbed Yamato's hand, dragging him further in. "Pirates!"

Yamato rolled his eyes as he was dragged to the striped, black and red costumes and large hats with equally large black feathers.

"On guard!"

Taichi had let go of Yamato's hand and was now pointing a fake sword at the blond.

Amused, Yamato grabbed a nearby sword.

"I think you mean: en garde!" Yamato said with an overdone French accent before proceeding to lunge at Taichi.

It seemed the clerks were used to customers having mini-duels in the store, as they didn't say anything to the two young men. The duel only lasted a few minutes, anyway, with the boys calling a truce to avoid disturbing the other patrons.

"What about hakamas?" Yamato asked, pointing towards the traditional section of the store. The play-fight had lifted his mood considerably; the thought of costume-shopping didn't make him want to run away.

Taichi's eyes lit up at the suggestion and the two made their way to the selection. He picked up two, one black the other navy.

"Let's try them on." Taichi grinned, handing Yamato the navy one.

Yamato nodded in agreement and the two made their way to the changing booths.

Putting on the costume turned out to be easier than Yamato was expecting. The top resembled a karategi, but it was a pull-over, rather than the usual coat-like open-front kind. That would probably prevent it from opening up at inappropriate times.

The actual hakama—the trousers themselves—looked authentic enough; loose-fitting and falling just to the ankles. Yamato stopped to wonder how shorter people would be able to pull the costume off without tripping on the bottoms.

"Ready?" Came Taichi's voice from outside the booth.

"Yeah." Yamato said as he stepped out to join his boyfriend—whom looked quite good in the traditional gear.

"You look like a cosplaying foreigner."

That little comment from Taichi was all it took for Yamato to march back into the changing booth and almost rip the curtain as he pulled it closed.

"Yamato?" Taichi said, peeking into the booth. "I didn't mean it as a bad thing."

"Get lost."

"Yama…"

"Go away. I'm taking it off."

Taichi sighed; he should have known better than to comment on Yamato's exotic looks; it had always been quite a sore subject for the blond. Why had he gone and opened his mouth like that? And just when Yamato had started to cheer up and enjoy himself.

The frown on Taichi's face started to turn upwards in a cunning smirk, as his brain formulated a plan to cheer the blond up again.

Without further ado, Taichi slipped into Yamato's booth, startling the half-dressed blond.

"Oi!" Yamato hissed, eyes flitting around nervously. "Get out. What are you doing here? What if someone sees you?"

Taichi just smiled. "Relax, no one will care, even if they do notice."

Yamato frowned, knowing that Taichi was probably right. He turned his back to his boyfriend. "Didn't I tell you to get lost earlier? Still applies."

"Don't be like that." Taichi reached over and placed a hand on Yamato's bare shoulder. "I really am sorry if you took what I said that wrong way."

"What way was I supposed to take it?" Yamato tried shrugging the hand off his shoulder, but it wouldn't budge.

"I'm sorry." Taichi repeated. He moved closer and used his hand to turn Yamato, placing a kiss on the pale lips. It wasn't meant to be chaste and Yamato understood that, responding eagerly.

Yamato turned without prompting, threading an arm around Taichi's lower back. He pulled the brunet closer.

The sound of someone calling for a friend outside the booth jolted Yamato back into awareness of their surroundings. They were still out in public.

Yamato pulled away from Taichi. He was torn; worried about things escalating, but also reluctant about stopping there.

"We should continue the costume search." Yamato pointed out.

Taichi frowned, but moved away with a final peck on Yamato's lips.

"Alright. But we'll pick this up when we get back home." He flashed a grin before leaving the booth.

Yamato smiled to himself. "I look forward to it." He muttered, stripping off the rest of the hakama costume and pulling on his jeans and button-up.

Taichi was still changing when Yamato walked out of the booth. He took the hakama back to its place and proceeded to circle the store, looking for the next piece to try on.

A hand grabbed his upper arm as he was looking through grim reaper stuff.

"This way." Taichi commanded gently, walking them back past the changing booths and in the opposite direction Yamato had gone from them.

"This next." Taichi grinned, picking up a female sailor uniform and holding it out for Yamato to see.

Yamato stared, incredulous. Taichi stared back, expectant.

"That's a skirt; it's a girl's costume." Yamato clarified, hoping against hope that Taichi had just missed the small detail.

"I know."

This was probably why Yamato wasn't the bearer of hope: his always came crashing down.

"I won't wear a skirt."

"Please?"

"No."

"For me?"

"No."

"I think you'd look really good."

"No."

Taichi sighed and lowered the costume to his side in a defeated manner. He also lowered his head, casting the costume a longing glance. He then looked up at Yamato from under his fringe.

"Is there any way I could convince you to try this on? I promise you don't even have to come out of the changing booth. Just, please try it on for me?"

Yamato crossed his arms over his chest, inspecting the begging adolescent in front of him.

"If you try one on, too." Came the reply at long last.

Taichi's head snapped up, eyes wide. "Huh?"

Yamato gestured to the costumes with his head. "I'll put that on if you try one on, too."

"I can't put on a dress; I'm the soccer team's captain!"

"And I'm a rock star!"

"Didn't you just retire from the business?"

"…Yeah." Yamato admitted, looking down before his attention returned to Taichi. "But I still won't put on a skirt unless you do, too."

Taichi grit his teeth, squeezing the clothing in a tight fist. "Fine." He glanced at the costume. "You try this one on." He thrust the sailor's uniform at Yamato. "I'll pick out something else."

Grinning in victory, Yamato took the white and navy costume. "So which one will you don?"

Taichi contemplated the female costumes, before settling on one. "This." He pulled down an orange ball gown.

Yamato did not look impressed. He brought his uniform up to eye-level, inspecting it. He inspected Taichi's costume. He dropped his back to his side.

"No."

"Not this again!" Taichi lamented, dropping his head backwards and letting his arms fall to his sides. The dress was half on the ground.

"Taichi."

"We are not doing this again."

Their unimpressed faced matched.

"So you're telling me," Yamato started. "That I have to put on a skirt that will hardly cover my ass, whereas you get to be fully covered."

"Yes."

Yamato cast a glance at his uniform. For some strange reason:

"Fine."

Taichi perked up. "Really? You'll actually agree to this?"

Yamato shrugged a shoulder, avoiding Taichi's eyes. "I guess. I mean, you'd probably get me to try it on anyway, so I might as well grab a deal that has you embarrassing yourself as well." He shrugged again, not knowing what else to do.

Taichi's brown eyes shone as his grin widened. He grabbed Yamato's free wrist, dragging him towards the booths again.

"I promise this will be good."

"I'm pretty sure I regret this already."

Five minutes later, Taichi and Yamato were standing in costume, in their respective booths.

"Um." Yamato started, eyeing himself in the mirror. "How did you plan this out, exactly? You said I wouldn't have to come out of the booth." He waited for a reply. "Does that mean you'll be coming over here?"

Taichi was silent for a minute, before making his decision: "We'll both come out at the same time."

"You promised."

"But that promise didn't require me in a dress. Both of us."

Yamato contemplated this; he wasn't happy with how short the skirt turned out to be on his long legs. The long socks came up short, too, making him look stupid. He backtracked with his thoughts: putting on a skirt had been stupid.

"Yamato?"

Said male snapped out of his thoughts and heaved a giant sigh, which Taichi heard, bringing a smirk to the brunet's face.

"On three?" Taichi asked, grabbing hold of the curtain.

"One." Came Yamato's defeated voice.

"Two." Taichi grinned, albeit slightly nervous.

"Three." They said as one and stepped out.

A faint red tinted both their faces and they avoided looking the other in the eye. Instead, they took in the other's costume.

The hem and sleeves of Taichi's dress had white ruffles and a white lace belt circled his waist. The hem came to just above his ankles, probably being a tad too short, just like Yamato's costume.

Overall, Taichi didn't look bad, if slightly awkward. His hair could have done with a different style, though.

"You look cute." Taichi commented, finally able to look into Yamato eyes. He smiled at the blond, trying to tell him that the situation wasn't as bad or embarrassing as he seemed to think.

"It's a bit too small." Yamato mumbled, fiddling with the hem of his navy skirt.

Taichi cocked his head, dropping his gaze back down to the costume. "Not like that's a bad thing."

Yamato threw him a glare before his eyes flew to the other customers, who were eyeing the boys. "Can we change back now?" He turned to walk back into the booth, but Taichi's hand on his arm stopped him.

"Not before you tell me how I look." He taunted.

The little…

Yamato turned his attention back to the orange dress. His face adopted a speculative look. "It's not bad; your hair could do with some bows or flowers, but other than that it's fine."

Taichi rolled his eyes, keeping hold of Yamato's arm. "Fine doesn't answer anything."

Mimicking the other, Yamato rolled his eyes. They were back to this: no answer seemed to satisfy Taichi.

"It doesn't exactly suit you." Yamato tried a different approach—a more truthful one that would hopefully answer the question to Taichi's liking.

Nodding, as if he had been expecting the answer, Taichi let go of Yamato's arm. "There we go. I told you that soccer captains don't wear dresses."

Another glare was thrown at him before the blue eyes disappeared behind the curtain.

Chuckling to himself, Taichi re-entered his booth and got out of the uncomfortably tight costume.

By the time they were out of the booths, Taichi announced that he was hungry. Thus, the two males left the store and made their way to the food courts.

They picked out a noodle-place, ordered their meals, and went to sit at a table in the corner.

"Are we done?" Yamato asked in-between mouthfuls.

Taichi shook his head vigorously, swallowing his noodles. "Nope. We still haven't decided on costumes for the party."

"The non-existent party." Yamato corrected, picking up some noodles.

Taichi chose to ignore the correction in favour of more noodles. "There are still two stores I want to check out, then we can go back, buy the kitty costume, and head home."

Yamato paused in his eating. "I'm sorry, what?"

Taichi looked up from his near-empty bowl. "What 'what?'"

"The second-to-last thing; kitty costume."

"Yeah," Taichi shrugged, putting his chopsticks down and picking up his bowl. "We need to get one."

Yamato frowned as he returned to his noodles. "Two, then."

Taichi shook his head between slurps of the broth. "Nope. We can share it, but we're only getting one set." He paused, contemplating a bit of air to Yamato's left. "Do you think those sets come with a collar and leash?"

"No." Was the firm reply.

Brown eyes returned to stare into blue. "Is that a 'no, they don't contain a leash and collar,' or a 'no' as in 'stop that train of thought right now?'"

"Both."

The males eyed each other in silence for a minute before Taichi shrugged and picked up his bowl again, for the last of the broth. "Well there's always the pet store on the second floor."

"Taichi…" A warning.

"You know you'll enjoy it." Taichi said, then pointed to Yamato's bowl. "You gonna finish that?"

Expressionless, Yamato pushed his bowl at Taichi, dropping his head onto the table as he did so.

Grinning, Taichi finished off the bits of noodle and broth left in the bowl.


	14. Ghosts don't exist

**Requester:** 50cyg

 **Prompt:** "I just like proving you wrong." Jou and Yamato (preferably platonic)

((To guest: I'll be addressing that in a separate fic))

(I've neglected these prompts in favour of the OTP week stuff, but now I'm back with this short one.

I've had this idea as a WIP for ages, but the writing wasn't flowing. Now I took the idea and tried this approach. It works better than my earlier attempt, though it was a bit hard fitting the quote in…)

-o-o-o-

"Are you really that worried about going up there?"

"I'm not worried!" Yamato snapped at Jou, though his eyes betrayed his nervousness. "I just don't…"

The pair was over at Jou's house, standing at the foot of a set of stairs that led to the attic. They had been discussing old medical treatments and Jou wanted to show Yamato a book on it. Said book, however, was so rarely used by the Kido family that it was kept in the attic.

Jou cocked his head at Yamato. "Are you claustrophobic?"

Yamato hesitated, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking at the floor.

"No, not really…"

Jou cocked his head. "But slightly? It's plenty spacious up there."

Yamato shrugged. "It's really not that so much as…" He rubbed at his arm and mumbled something.

"What?" Jou asked, leaning in.

Blue eyes flashed up in annoyance before they returned to the ground, ashamed. He mumbled his earlier statement again.

Jou's eyes widened. "I'm sorry." He stated, mouth dry. "But can you repeat that? I really think I misheard you."

Yamato glared. "I said: What if there are ghosts up there?"

"Ghosts?" Jou asked.

Yamato nodded.

Jou stared.

Then Jou burst out laughing.

Yamato fidgeted in annoyance, alternating between shoving his hands into his pockets and pulling them out to wring them together.

"Can you stop now?" Yamato snapped after listening to Jou's incessant laughter for a good two minutes.

"S-sor—" Jou burst out laughing again before he even got the word out of his mouth.

Bordering on pissed, Yamato stomped up the rickety wooden stairs. His footsteps softened about half-way up, becoming more hesitant until they stopped at the top.

"Yamato?" Jou started after the blond. "I'm sorry. Wait for me, I'm coming up."

Yamato waited, allowing Jou to catch up, and decided he was in a forgiving enough mood to let Jou lead the way further into the attic.

Something creaked and the hairs on the back of Yamato's neck stood up. He gave an involuntary twitch.

"That's just the house settling." Jou assured, eyeing Yamato with a smile. "It does that all the time and it's most noticeable at night when you're trying to sleep."

Yamato threw him a glare. "I know." He cast a glance around their surroundings. "Where's the box?"

The small skylight didn't provide too much light to search by, but Jou seemed to know where the box he needed was.

"Here." Jou kneeled by a wooden crate, unclipping the lock system.

The hinges creaked and Yamato gave another twitch. Thankfully, this one went unnoticed.

The blond wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing away some of the cold that had seeped under his skin. Warily, he eyed the light filtering in from the skylight; was it just him, or did it look like there were shapes reflected in the rays?

A hand landed on Yamato's shoulder, making him jump and swallow down a yelp.

"Sorry." Jou apologised. The med student kept his hand in place, giving a light squeeze. "But trust me, there are no ghosts in this house. I've lived here my whole life and been alone plenty of times, so I'd know if it was haunted." He smiled reassuringly.

Yamato shrugged the hand off his shoulder, starting towards the stairs again. "If you have the book, we should head back down."

"Not quite yet." Jou smiled, grabbing onto Yamato's wrist. Yamato tensed in response, but Jou kept his hold, tugging slightly. "This way."

Jou led the way to another corner of the attic, pulling back a white cloth. Underneath was a pile of cardboard boxes.

"These used to belong to my grandfather." Jou explained. He opened one of the boxes, pulling out a few folders and a small plastic box.

"Jou…" Yamato started, eyeing the talismans Jou pulled out wearily.

Jou grinned. "My grandfather was really into ghosts and spirits. These are instruction for a spell that will reveal any that are around."

Yamato cringed away slightly. Did they really need to reveal any ghosts that might be around? He would prefer to let them stay hidden and get the hell out of the creepy attic. Not that he was admitting any of this out loud.

Jou placed a few talismans and slips of paper—ofudas—into a pattern on the floor. He sat down and brought his palms together in prayer. Then he started chanting.

The room darkened a fraction and Yamato hastily stepped closer to Jou. The darkness lasted only a few seconds as the clouds outside continued on their way, out of the sun's way.

The house creaked again, making Yamato rub at his arm to get his hairs to fall back down.

Jou stopped chanting and smiled up at Yamato. "See? The spell's over and nothing has popped out."

Yamato's eyes flickered around the attic, then returned to look at Jou. He shoved his hands into his pockets, and replied gruffly: "You didn't have to go through all that trouble just to prove to me that there were no ghosts."

Jou smiled in response, getting up and dusting himself off. "I know I didn't, but I just like proving you wrong."

With a final glare, Yamato started leading the way to the stairs. "Right. Let's just get out of here."

Jou chuckled, staying a bit longer to put the talismans and ofuda papers back. He missed the pair of eyes watching him from the corner.


	15. The carnival

**Requester:** 50cyg

 **Prompt:** "I'm not your babysitter."- Taichi and literally anyone

((Short, but hope this amuses you nonetheless))

-o-

I sighed as Taichi dragged me through the entrance to the carnival. He had been hyped about it for weeks now and I had agreed to join him at the event. I was regretting that promise now.

"This way!" Taichi exclaimed, tugging at my long sleeve. He dashed off to the left, and I followed with heavy feet.

I had been hoping for a chance to relax this weekend, after the long and tiring week I'd had. Promises of attending the carnival with Taichi had slipped my mind until last night, when Taichi had come home from his university. He had been ecstatic about it and I hadn't had the heart to tell him I was too tired to go.

Taichi was waiting—almost patiently—for me to catch up. I quickened my pace, not wanting him to start whining at me to hurry.

"Come on." He urged. "We need to get to the rides before the lines get too long."

I frowned lightly. "Taichi. I told you I wouldn't be joining you on the rides. I can go on some of the gentler ones, but I don't trust anything that goes at high speed. This thing was put together in a few days, so it can't be safe." I paused at that thought. "And I would like it if you refrained from getting on some of those rides, too."

He just laughed and continued walking towards a ride that looked like it would make anyone hurl. A big, flashy sign read: 'Zero Gravity.' It didn't look very appealing to me, with people strapped to the walls of a large cylinder.

Taichi got in line. I refused to.

As I waited for Taichi to be done with his turn in the death-trap (fretting the entire time that it would break), I looked around the carnival. The event was called 'Amusements of America' and everything was supposedly like at American carnivals. I wouldn't know, having never been to one.

The carnival was travelling around Japan, setting up in various cities across the country. They would be near Odaiba for just this weekend, so the carnival grounds were packed.

Taichi managed to survive the ride, grinning as he walked up to me.

"You really should have joined me; it wasn't that bad."

I just sent a slight frown his way before turning to head in the opposite direction from the stomach-churning apparatus.

"Candy floss!" Taichi exclaimed, pointing to the vendor dishing out the sugary treat to two small kids. "Let's get some."

"Taichi." I stood my ground, even as Taichi tugged on my arm. "That stuff will rot your teeth; you're not having any."

"But we have to get some."

"No we don't." I said sternly.

Taichi rolled his eyes at me. "Fine." Then he perked up before I could say anything. "But we're definitely getting candy apples."

I gave him an annoyed look, but relented, knowing he wouldn't give up on his quest to get a sweet treat. I would rather we have something healthy, but that probably wasn't even an option here…

Taichi was a living-at-home, poor university student, so I bought the candy apple for him, despite my silent disapproval of his choice of snack. It was easy to tell that he was grateful—though more for the sugary apple than my buying it for him.

We walked around as he munched on his treat, watching on as youngsters played at some of the game stalls. I got Taichi to join me at a rope-pulling game. We each got small gifts, though I would have wanted a stuff toy. Oh well, maybe at the next one.

"Oh!" Taichi exclaimed, grabbing onto my arm again. "Let's go on this one; it'll be easy on the stomach."

I gave him a flat look. "No." Then tried walking past the ghost train. Absolutely not.

"Oh, come on." Taichi whined, still holding on to my arm, not letting me get too far.

I turned to him. "If you want to go, go alone."

"It's no fun alone; please come with me."

"No."

"Please? Pretty please?"

"No. Go alone."

"You need to come with me."

"I'm not your babysitter."

He paused, staring, then said carefully: "No, but you are my mother."


	16. Serenity

**Requester:** 50cyg

 **Prompt:** "Stop being grumpy. It's lame." – Jou and Yamato

"What?" Jou was baffled: the people on the TV screen had suddenly stopped moving. He turned his head to his boyfriend, nestled into his side, and was met with a pair of blue eyes. "Yamato? Why'd you pause it?"

"Were you even watching it?" Yamato retorted, sounding almost defeated.

Jou glanced at the screen, noting what was clearly a war-scene, complete with explosions and chaos.

Yamato sighed, pushing himself away from Jou and moving to the DVD player. They were at Jou's apartment—a one-bedroom flat, close to the hospital Jou had worked at since he got his medical license three years ago.

Jou watched as Yamato ejected the DVD, putting it back into its case. The blond then ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh.

"Yamato?"

Silently, Yamato moved to sit back on the couch, further away from Jou than he had been earlier.

Jou spoke to his lap: "I'm really pushing you away, aren't I? I'm being a bad boyfriend."

"Did I ever say that?" Yamato glanced at Jou before he, too, turned his eyes to his own lap.

"You don't have to say it; I know you're thinking it. _I'm_ thinking it."

"That makes one of us." Yamato's tone was a bit more aggressive than he would have liked, but he did give himself a mental pat on the back for sounding almost normal.

With a semi-frustrated sound, Jou turned on the couch, facing Yamato. "Yamato, I know that I haven't made time for you. I promised you in high school that, once I was done with schoolwork and exams and had graduated and started working, I'd be more attentive towards you, but I haven't kept that promise."

"Jou—"

"Wait." Jou interrupted. "I've been thinking recently, and have decided that I'm a horrible boyfriend to you. I…" Jou paused, frowning and eyes turning to stare at something on the floor.

Yamato, still staring at his lap, felt his stomach churn. He knew what Jou was doing: taking all the blame for the relationship falling apart. But it was really Yamato's fault, wasn't it? He was always pushing people away… He hadn't wanted to bother Jou by nagging or contacting him, so Jou probably translated that as Yamato no longer being interested. That couldn't be farther from the truth; Yamato was still interested—very much so—in being with Jou. But now he'd gone and ruined the whole relationship by not being active enough.

"Yamato?"

"Huh?" Yamato snapped back to attention, staring wide-eyed at his… ex? His boyfriend? He didn't know what Jou had said, so he didn't know if they were now over. Great, to add to being a shit person in general, now Yamato wasn't even listening.

"I was just saying," Jou continued and Yamato forced himself to attention. "That I won't make you any more promises; it will just depress me when I can't keep them. I'm still so new at work that I'm concentrating really hard, so I never remember to send you a quick text or remember you in any other way. And when I'm free, you might be working because my hours are so odd. Or, if we're both free, I won't have anything special planned, since I won't have known in advance, and we just end up doing something like this: hanging out at my place and watching… something."

Yamato rolled his eyes. " _Firefly_. We were watching _Firefly_."

Jou's eyes flickered to the blank screen then back to Yamato. He knew Yamato had mentioned the TV series before, but, right now, he couldn't remember what it was about or why Yamato had insisted Jou had to see it.

With an exasperated sigh, Yamato threw his head back onto the backrest of the couch in an overly dramatic display. Then he straightened up, sitting cross-legged on the couch, facing Jou. " _Firefly_ is basically cowboys in space."

Yamato waited expectantly. Jou blinked, unsure of what to say. Yamato leaned forward slightly, eyebrow raised.

"Uh, space cowboys sound interesting?"

The blond let out a defeated sigh and let his head drop. "Why do I bother?" He mumbled to himself, then looked up at Jou. "Not 'space cowboys;' cowboys in space. There's a difference."

"Is there?"

"Yes!" Yamato edged a bit closer to Jou. "It's a Western setting, but in a new star system. The series is amazing. It was cancelled because it kind of sucks, but it's really good."

Jou was baffled. "How can the series suck and still be good?"

"Because it can." Yamato stated. "Don't question me."

Jou chuckled, making Yamato smile. Though the smile fell as soon as Jou's dark eyes fell to the floor.

The blond stood and looked down at his boyfriend. "Stop being grumpy. It's lame." He paused, then added: "Besides, being grumpy is my job."

Jou chuckled again and reached a hand up to pull Yamato into a bow, kissing him. "Sorry for being lame. And for stealing your job."

"It's okay; I know you can't help it." Yamato joked, sashaying back to the DVD player. "You actually ready to watch this now?"

"Yeah." Jou smiled, watching as Yamato popped the DVD in and returned to his side, remote in hand. Jou threw an arm over the blond's shoulders, pulling him closer like they'd been earlier. "I'm ready."


End file.
